Eight Units Destroyed In West Tulsa Apartment Fire

NewsOn6.com & Dan Bewley, News On 6

TULSA, Oklahoma -- Tulsa firefighters had to battle strong southerly winds at a fire at an apartment building at 6339 South 33rd West Avenue Wednesday morning. 

Eight units were destroyed at the Overlook Apartments, but all of the residents made it out safely.

April Lambert was on the property looking for an apartment for herself when she saw smoke and flames.

"It was real smoky and by the time we got here the roof had just started catching on fire and we just, it took off, the fire just started shooting probably about 15 feet in the sky," she said.

Brad Masterson's step daughter lives in the bottom floor. She was awakened by a maintenance person, warning her about the fire. She got out but her cats did not survive.

"She's doing okay," Masterson said. "She's a little shook up but I think she's going to be okay."

Tulsa Fire Public Information Officer Tim Smallwood says the winds were so strong that firefighters were instructed to back out at one point.

"It's a two story apartment so it's up high and the wind is catching it and just pushing it, it's coming from south to north so that wind is just pushing it to the next unit," Smallwood said.

Smallwood said a firewall in the building prevented the fire from spreading to other apartments in the building.  He also said crews were quickly on the scene and that helped keep the fire from spreading.

"You've got to give praise to these guys, these guys came out and did a really good job putting a stop to this fire, I mean it could have been a lot worse," he said.

The residents now are left with figuring out what to do next, some have places to stay and the Red Cross is helping the others.

"Yeah I'm upset, everything is gone. I'm sure I lost my dog that was in there but I can't do nothing about it," Keith Lawson said.

Tulsa Fire investigators are now trying to determine the cause of the fire.