One occupant leaps, another is rescued from flaming Tacoma apartments

TACOMA, Wash. — A man leaped from his burning Tacoma apartment Tuesday night while a woman was rescued from hers by Tacoma firefighters.

No one was seriously injured in the blaze that began in a stairwell outside two upper story apartments in the 5200 block of South 12th Street around 7 p.m.

“I looked out my peephole and saw flames and knew I had to get out,” said Kyle, a 23-year-old resident who declined to give his last name.

Kyle was eating dinner when he heard crackling coming from outside his front door. Seconds later, he was on his balcony.

“Somebody said, ‘You have to get out of there. How do you feel about jumping’?” Kyle recalled.

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“I said, ‘I really don’t have a choice.’ So, I jumped off the back porch,” he said.

He had a scraped knee but was otherwise unhurt as far as he knew.

“I’m pretty shook up,” Kyle said. “So, I don’t really know.”

In the apartment below, Katherine Rogers was settling in for the evening when she heard knocking and someone yelling about a fire.

“So, I got out,” Rogers said while standing on a sidewalk in her red bath robe.

Rogers said she returned to her apartment twice — once for her phone and once for her purse.

Tacoma Fire battalion chief Doug Kimball said the fire extended into both upstairs apartments.

Mop up and investigation continued into the evening Tuesday.

The News Tribune