Cause Of East Tulsa Apartment Complex Fire Was Accidental

By Dan Bewley, The News On 6

TULSA, OK --  Tulsa Fire says the cause of Tuesday's fire at the Sierra Pointe Apartments in east Tulsa was accidental.  Fire investigators tell The News On 6, the fire started in a void in a wall of the apartment building.  Exact cause is still undetermined.

Some who live in an east Tulsa apartment building are without a home after a fire gutted the building.

Tulsa firefighters were dispatched shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday to the complex in the 1400 block of South 107th East Avenue.

No one was seriously hurt in the fire, but it caused major damage to a building and forced several families out of their homes.

Tulsa Fire says 31 firefighters were called in to battle the two-alarm fire, but at times smoke was so thick you could barely see firefighters working to get the fire under control.

Tulsa Fire Captain Bill French says the fire was hard to fight because of the design of the apartment building.

Shortly before noon, Tulsa Fire reported they had the fire under control.

"I saw only the fire, I was sleeping," said Rolando Rava.

Rava was one of several residents who live in the 8-apartment building. The complex manager declined to go on camera, but said all of the residents were accounted for and no one was believed to be seriously hurt.

Tulsa Fire says the fire started in a downstairs unit and the building's design allowed the smoke to filter throughout the building. 

From SKYNEWS 6 you could see the ventilation holes Tulsa Fire cut to help deal with the massive amount of smoke.

Watch aerials of the fire from SKYNEWS 6.

"Still got a lot of smoke coming out of there, but mainly it's just smoke that's going up between the ceiling joist and the walls, up into the attic area," said Bill French.

The fire forced dozens of residents to leave, some grabbed what they could -- a pair of jeans, even a bag of potato chips. 

Lisa Meneley lives one building over, but her sister who is 8 1/2 months pregnant, lives in the same building where the fire started.

"So far physically she seems alright, physically," said Meneley.

Meneley's sister was too shaken to speak on camera, but Meneley thinks she'll be okay.

Now Sierra Pointe residents are left cleaning up a blackened mess and amazed at how quickly their lives have changed.

"I don't know, how life can just switch over right real quick. You can just lose everything, anybody, just so fast, that's crazy," said Meneley.

The Red Cross was also on scene Tuesday morning, helping the displaced residents and providing refreshments for firefighters.