EVERETT, Wash. — Twenty-nine people are out of their homes after a fire at the Woodbrook Apartments in Everett.
As smoke billowed from Everett's Woodbrook Apartments, cellphone video shows flames jumping to a nearby tree as neighbors scream.
"It just happened like that,” said Connie Rowland, who went door to door as the smoke grew.
"And I ran around knocking on (doors), going up all the stairs, just to make sure everybody got out. It's just scary," said Rowland.
Firefighters say they responded to flames and smoke in the area of one apartment, but nobody was inside that apartment when they went inside.
"I was like, I hear her alarm going off again. She's probably burning trash again,” said resident Kathy Williams.
Williams says just last week she went to the same apartment unit, where she saw smoke coming out the door.
"She opened the door, cause there was black smoke coming out. She was like, I'm just burning trash of my garbage, I'm OK,'" Williams said.
Williams thinks the same thing happened Saturday night: that her neighbor was burning trash in the fireplace.
"It's no common sense, if you ask me. Who would do that?" said Williams.
But firefighters haven't confirmed those claims. They say they're still investigating what caused the fire.
In the meantime, 29 displaced residents are getting help from the Red Cross until officials say it's safe for them to go back home.
KIRO
