MINERSVILLE -- A woman is severely injured after an apartment building caught fire in Schuylkill County.
That fire broke out in Minersville Friday afternoon and now, more than a dozen people are left without a home.
Roughly fifteen people are without a home after a blaze broke out inside the three-story apartment building on Sunbury Street in Minersville around 2:30 Friday afternoon.
“I was sleeping in for the Good Friday and banging on the door,” said Mike Greenawalt, who was one of the several residents home when they fire broke out.
“We grabbed whatever we could right next to the bed and we got out and there was flames shooting out the second floor in the back corner of the building, really bad flames,” said Greenawalt.
The Minersville Fire Chief says the building holds eight apartment units and believes the fire started in a unit on the second floor.
Crews thought they had everyone one out of the building until someone noticed one tenant was missing.
“Initial reports were everybody was out of the building,” said Chie Eric Eichenberg. “And then a relative or another tenant, I'm not a hundred percent sure, came to me said somebody is still in there.”
Crews rushed back inside and found an unconscious woman in one of the units.
She was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital with severe burns.
No one can stay at the building; however, the chief did let some residents retrieve items.
“Right now the building's off-limits to everybody else with the exception of the apartments that did not get damaged substantially,” said Chief Eichenberg.
Despite being forced out, many tenants say the damage could have been far worse and credit the fire crews for working so fast.
“I'm just glad that they got here and got it down right away. Honestly, they did a good job and I'm very happy that they were able to knock it out as quickly as they did,” said Liza Calvin.
“Knocked it down really fast and did a heck of a job, they saved this side of the building and I'm thankful for that,” said Greenawalt. “Because of how fast they worked today, it saved all of our belongings, we'll be able to salvage everything.”
Red Cross is assisting the displaced residents.
A state police fire marshal is investigating the fire but the fire chief says it doesn't appear to be suspicious.