A fire at an east London apartment building sent two people to hospital, left more than a dozen residents stranded on their balconies, and at least 20 more waiting outside on Thursday evening.
Two people were taken by ambulance from the London and Middlesex Community Housing rent-geared-to-income building for those 50 and older at 202 McNay St. around 7 p.m., officials with the London Fire Department said. Their injuries were not considered life-threatening.
Reta Fortin, a resident the building for 18 years, said she was in the middle of making dinner and rearranging new furniture when the fire alarm went off.
“I came outside to see what was going on, and there was smoke coming out the front of the building,” Fortin said. “It was coming out at the sixth floor and just floating up higher, but it was kind of dark and then it got lighter as time progressed.”
Another resident, Anne Gilbrook, spoke to The Free Press by phone from her eighth-floor balcony.
“When I looked out my window, I couldn’t see my railing (because of) smoke and I went, ‘Oh my god,’” Gilbrook said. “I thought it was the apartment right below me, but as I got organized (I) calmed down because I’d started to panic.”
Fire crews were continuing with ventilation of the building to clear smoke from a stovetop fire, fire officials said in a statement posted to social media. By 8:30 p.m., fire crews were wrapping up and investigators were arriving to determine the cause of the blaze, officials said.
Thursday’s apartment fire is the fourth blaze at the building since 2020.
Officials have previously said firefighters extinguished a fire and ventilated the building on Oct. 15, 2023. There also was a fire in April 2022, with damage pegged at about $25,000. Before that, fire crews put out a fire in the building in July 2020, on the seventh floor.