A morning apartment fire at Tradewinds Apartments, 5537 North Towne Place NE, has damaged an apartment unit and displaced one occupant.  Jared Turner, age 22, saw smoke coming from an adjacent apartment door and called 911 to report the fire.  Firefighters were dispatched at 5:55 a.m. and arrived on scene of the two-story, 12-unit apartment complex and found smoke showing from the outside apartment door of Apartment #1.

Upon firefighters’ entry through the two-bedroom apartment unit, they found flames in the kitchen along the ceiling.  Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire and contain fire damage to the kitchen area of the single apartment unit.  There was heat and smoke damage through the entire apartment unit.   The occupant was not home at the time of the fire.

Travis Cook, age 40, who had left for work, returned while firefighters were still on scene.  Cook was advised that due to the fire, heat and smoke damage, he would not be able to stay in the apartment unit.  He is being assisted by the Grant Wood Chapter of the American Red Cross.

Three adjacent apartments sustained minor smoke damage, but the occupants were able to return to their apartment units after ventilation.  The five occupants of the other three apartment units were evacuated for approximately 45 minutes.

There were no injuries reported.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The smoke alarm was sounding in Apartment #1 at the time of fire.  The neighbor who reported the fire first witnessed smoke and then was able to hear the smoke alarm sounding.

No further information is available at this time.