Apartment Fire in Irving Leaves Residents Without a Home

A fire at an apartment complex in Irving destroyed 32 units and left more than 80 residents displaced.

According to Irving Fire Dept. Assistant Chief Rusty Wilson, firefighters arrived at the Finley Apartments in the 2500 block of Finley Road around 2:00 a.m.  Wilson said at least three buildings caught on flames. A total of 48 adults and 36 children were outside their residences.

"We hear the voices, out of the building, out of the apartment, there's fire so we just wake up the kids and take it outside," resident Anayeli Demeza said.

"I thought somebody was fighting outside,” added fellow resident Rosalia Rivero. “I heard lots of screaming and I jumped out of bed to look and I woke him up to tell him there's a fire and we jumped up and got the girls out."

The first responders at the location saw heavy fire moving through the roof of the  two story complex. The fire broke through three separate fire walls, said Wilson.

"We got here and were kinda behind the eight ball. Obviously the fire had a jump on us," said  Wilson.

The Irving Fire Department had a total of 49 firefighters at the location and worked with 18 pieces of equipment to calm the four-alarm fire.

"I think it's good that all the residents, everybody started jumping up knocking on doors, banging on doors getting everybody out so it helped out a lot," said resident Lalo Maldanado.

"I left barefooted, I have the neighbors shoes on,” said resident Estella Ramirez in a parking lot across the street hours later. “We just pretty much ran out the door because the fire was really hot."

There were two civilians taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and one firefighter was treated with minor injuries.

No fatalities are reported and no one suffered life threatening injuries, said Wilson.

The cause of the fire remains unknown at the time.

NBC 5's Mark Schnyder contributed to this report.

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