Sam Kombrink / sam.lakesun@gmail.com
Osage Beach Fire Protection District personnel arrived on scene about 10:15 a.m. Friday at the Lake Ozark Village apartment complex on Mace Road where an apartment had reportedly caught on fire.
According to Osage Beach Fire Chief Paul Berardi, no injuries were reported as his crew of firefighters successfully put out the fire, keeping it from spreading to other apartment units.
“We got a call for a commercial structure fire at about 10:15 a.m.,” Berardi said. “Upon our arrival we reported a working heavy fire showing on arrival. We made an initial interior attack and were able to get somewhat of a knockdown on it until the ceiling started coming down on us. We backed out and hit then it from the outside.”
Berardi and his crew was able to get other tenants vacated from their apartments safely.
“Before we had to back out we were able to access two different apartments and assist people out of the structure,” he said.
Berardi noted that it looks like the fire was started from the outside and is unclear on how the fire was caused.
“It looks at this point like the fire started on the outside of the structure and went into the attic space through the eaves,” he said. “We don’t know what the cause is yet and we hate to speculate. They are looking at everything it could have been from a source outside. It’s pretty obvious that it started on the side of the structure from the burn pattern and then went into the attic. Firefighters arrived very quickly and put one heck of a stop on this because had we not been able to get here so quickly, the fire would have ran the entire structure and eliminated the entire 12 units and quite possibly could have gone into the other 12 units in the other wing.”
Resident Robert Handel returned from grocery shopping to see his complex in flames.
“I came home to put my groceries up and then I see all this,” he said. “Now I have to go 25 miles from here to my sister’s and she’s going to freak out. I lost everything, my money, my medications. I don’t know what to do. But she doesn’t have a car and I got that SUV right there with half a tank.”
