CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Major damage to a four-story apartment building in downtown Charleston following a Wednesday afternoon fire.
The blaze broke out at shortly after 3 p.m. in the four-story Regal Apartment building in the 1400 block of Kanawha Blvd. not far from the state capitol.
Resident Jimmy Jordan told MetroNews he was watching a movie in his fourth floor apartment when he he heard something in the hallway.
“I heard like a loud buzzing noise, a cracking noise. I looked out in the hallway and the lights were out and then a cracking noise in the attic and it was on fire,” Jordan said.
Charleston firefighters arrived on the scene and evacuated the residents in the building. There are approximately three dozen apartments in the structure. Fire crews also attacked fire above with their ladder truck.
The fire was still actively burning as of 5:15 p.m. The roof had collapsed.
Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said the structure had been ruled unsound–and firefighters stopped their interior attack.
Goodwin said the city was working with the Red Cross to find out the needs of the residents. She said 27 residents lived there.
The thick smoke filled downtown Charleston with breezy conditions carrying the smoke over a several mile area.
