A large apartment building in southeast Iowa was gutted by fire last night. It’s one of the largest fires seen in years in Fairfield and fire departments from Fairfield, Libertyville, Packwood, Lockridge and Mt. Pleasant were on the scene helping to put out the blaze.
The building is an apartment building but it is reported that all inhabitants of the building were able to vacate the building and get to safety. Fairfield Fire Chief Scott Vaughn says the building looks to be a total loss and the structure of the building, which used to be commercial building but has since been turned into eight apartments, is the largest concern.
Explosions from inside the building put firefighters in a defensive mode, meaning they would try to fight the flames from outside of the building rather than heading inside. Tenants who were without a place to stay last night were being assisted by the American Red Cross.
The situation was made worse when another fire broke out at a Fairfield mobile home park last night, pulling crews away from the first fire.
By Steve Smith, KMCD, Fairfield