Fire at 1109 Underhill

OK, so at around 3 AM on Tuesday morning I awoke to the sound of my air conditioning unit rattling. It does that from time to time, so I didn't think anything of it, but since I was up I decided to go to the bathroom. As I headed towards the door, the corner window in my bedroom caught my eye as there was a strange orange glow coming through.

I ran over to the window and pushed the blinds apart to see an enormous ball of flame climbing along the back end of the apartment two doors down. There were no fire trucks in sight and there was an eerie silence as this flame worked its way up the side of the building.

I quickly grabbed my cell phone, dialed 911 and ran into Ryan's room to wake him. He couldn't see anything out of his window, so he followed me into my bedroom where I pulled up the blinds to reveal this massive fire. This time the silence was broken by one man's voice off in the distance yelling "GET OUT OF THERE!" over and over again.

By the time we got clothes and shoes on and headed out of the building, one fire truck had pulled up and neighbors were starting to gather in front of the building.

When it was all said and done, a 3 story apartment building, a 12 car garage, and the corner of another apartment complex were destroyed. Thankfully everyone survived and only one firefighter was injured, but one dog was killed.

The fire was a Four-Alarm fire, and I've heard that this was the worst Peoria's had in recent history. It was hot enough to melt the bumpers of cars parked 25 feet away. I'm just thankful it didn't happen at 1119 Underhill.

Keep it real,

Ben