Fire routs dozens of Coatesville tenants

Tiffany Wegman was writing a late-night e-mail in her family's Coatesville apartment when a neighbor's screams of "Fire!" prompted her to rush to a back window.

A blaze on the balcony above her was creeping toward her deck at the Millview Apartment Homes.

"My husband was sleeping, so I got him up and told him to get my daughter, and we ran out," said Wegman, 21, whose other child, a son, was spending the night away from home.

The three were among 50 to 60 people evacuated from their homes about 12:50 a.m. Friday when a three-alarm fire raced through a building at the 350-unit complex.

Eight firefighters were hurt, none seriously, said John J. Clifford of the State Police Fire Marshal Unit.

Clifford said the fire was accidental, though a cause has not been determined. He said the blaze started on a second-floor balcony.

Fourteen of the 25 apartments in the building on Saginaw Drive will have to be gutted, said Brian Hutton, a maintenance manager at the complex. The remaining apartments sustained minimal damage but have no electricity, Hutton said. He said he did not know when residents would be able to move back in.

Millview, built six years ago, is owned by Chetty Builders, a development company in Kennett Square, Hutton said. Apartments rent for about $1,000 a month, and are equipped with multiple alarms and sprinklers.

Stefanie Jones, who lives in the building, said she was awakened by a fire alarm. Her husband, Steven, left the bedroom to see if it was more than a false alarm and returned saying, "It's real."

They grabbed their 9-year-old daughter and hurried out of the apartment. Along with other residents, they gathered in a clubhouse room near the pool. Later, the American Red Cross set up a shelter at the Gateway Church in Parkesburg.

The Joneses said they would stay at a nearby hotel for now. Wegman and her family are staying with her parents in Lancaster County.

Friday afternoon, officials allowed Jenny Munson, a pet-sitter and friend of resident Kevin Sherlock, who was out of town, to see if Sherlock's two cats had survived.

One, Bailey, was found dead in a hallway. Spike, who had hidden under the bed in a back bedroom, was found sooty, soaking wet, and alive.

"It was destroyed up there," Munson said. "It was a miracle he survived."