LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Several families are displaced after a devastating fire Wednesday night at a 16-unit apartment complex in southern Indiana.
Mike Roberts was one of those residents, and the only person injured in the fire.
"It saved my fall for the most part," he said, motioning toward the tree he leapt on to from his second-story balcony as the mounting blaze forced his escape.
Roberts cut his leg in the process. It took 13 stitches to sew the wound up.
"I told my mom, 'I'm gonna go hug that tree when I can get over there,'" Roberts mused with a laugh.
The fire started at Kingsfield Apartments in New Albany around 9 p.m. Wednesday night.
After just three minutes, New Albany Fire Department sent 22 firefighters to the scene to fight the blaze and about the same amount of crews also responded as backup from Clarksville Fire Department and New Albany Township Fire.
It took crews one and a half hours to control the blaze. However, crews stayed overnight to check for hotspots.
NAFD Deputy Fire Chief Tim Kron said eight units are a "total loss" and that the fire displaced 16 residents.
On Thursday, the morning after the fire, residents were seen going through the rubble for their valuables alongside firefighters.
Roberts's neighbor, Judi Davidson, rented one of the eight homes that officials now call unlivable.
"I threw some clothes on, tried to grab the cats. 'Course, I could only grab Loki. Miss Tiny was hiding, bless her heart," she said.
Tiny, she believes, is still hiding. Some of Davidson's neighbors are helping with the search. She's hoping for the cat's safe return after a firefighter and police officer talked her into leaving the home as the fire spread.
"They're both in there like, 'you gotta get out now,'" she remembered. "Then the apartment started filling with smoke. Y'know, if they hadn't been there, I'd still be looking for her."
Davidson also lost family photos in the fire. Those, now slathered with wet ash, may not be recovered.
Roberts lost his tennis shoe collection he numbered at 200.
"But hey, I can replace those. I'm in good spirit right now. I'm alive, and that's what matters," he said.
The Red Cross and Salvation Army put up displaced residents for the night and plan to do the same Thursday for those who need it. Kingsfield Apartments also offered all residents we spoke to new units.
It remains unclear how the fire started, but the Indiana State Fire Marshal and New Albany Fire Departments will conduct a routine arson investigation.
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