Damage pegged at $200k in Kent Street high-rise fire

The city’s fire inspector is continuing to investigate the cause of a blaze at a downtown apartment high-rise Friday that left around $200,000 in damages, fire officials said.

Crews were called to the scene at 155 Kent St., just west of Richmond Street, around 3:22 p.m. for a blaze in a tenth-floor unit.

Smoke could be seen billowing from a window on the building’s east side, and firefighters were met with intense heat and heavy smoke once they made their way inside the apartment.

The entire building was evacuated and crews managed to quickly locate and douse the fire before it spread upstairs, officials said. No injuries were reported to building residents or to firefighters.

In total, 32 firefighters attended the call and extinguished the blaze within 16 minutes of arriving, officials said.

The blaze caused extensive heat and smoke damage to the single unit and heated and cracked the windows of apartments one and two floors above. A hot water heater in the unit also split open, flooding the apartment and causing water damage to units below.

“The fire appears to have been burning for quite some time,” said District Fire Chief Shawn Fitzgerald Friday, adding that the two residents of the unit weren’t home at the time.

“There was a lot of heat inside the apartment. We requested extra vehicles to come because of the intensity of the fire early on in the event.”

Fitzgerald said he had spoken with a woman residing in the apartment who came home from school, while a man living in the unit was returning from travel outside of the city.

“They’re distraught. It’s tough to break information to occupants. But they’re being interviewed right now by the inspector and by the police just to help kind of give as much information as they can about the cause.”

— With files from AM980’s Liny Lamberink