KINGSTON -- A well-know senior high rise in Luzerne County had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in one the rooms on an upper floor.
For more than two hours, fire crews had to shut down parts of Wyoming Avenue in Kingston while they worked to contain an apartment fire at a senior and disabled apartment complex.
Dawn Neilan and her dog Ringo have lived on the 16th floor at the Dan Flood Tower for almost five years. She crossed the street to pick up some medication and when she returned she saw a fire on the top floor, her floor.
"It's terrifying you know. It was terrifying," Neilan said. "My first thought was my niece. Oh my God! Oh my God! My niece Danielle is 12 and she's in my apartment on 16."
Neilan's niece made it out safely, along with everyone else inside the complex.
"It's scary 'cause there are people in here with animals and they need to get out and especially the older people," said resident Diana Carmona.
The fire was contained to the one apartment where it broke out. No one was inside that apartment at the time.
As far as fires go, the fire chief says it's better that the fire started on the top floor instead of a lower floor.
"It's better to have a 16th floor fire than an eighth floor because then you'd have eight floors of people above the fire in serious jeopardy with heat and smoke," said Edwardsville Fire Chief Ray King.
King said older apartment complexes like this one are typically well equipped with smoke detectors, but sometimes that's not enough.
"There were smoke alarms here and it's a monitored building. It's not sprinkled. It would be nice if it was. It would have probably been a minor fire if it was sprinkled."
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. Almost all the residents have returned to their apartments, except where the fire started and two other rooms that had smoke and water damage.
