Eight families are out of their home tonight after a fire at a Fort Worth apartment complex early Sunday.
The Fort Worth Fire Department and Euless Fire Department responded to flames and smoke coming from a chimney flue.
Ikea Williams’ home at the Tides on Post Oak Apartments at 3812 Silent Oak Drive received the worst of the damage.
“Me and my children made it out alive and made it out safe,” Williams said.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
The cause is under investigation but Williams thinks the fire likely started in her chimney after she tried unsuccessfully to use the fireplace late Saturday night.
Williams said she had safely used the fireplace just a few days prior but did not notice anything was wrong until her upstairs neighbor knocked on her door.
“My neighbors were angels because they had just got here and they noticed what was going on when I didn’t,” Williams said.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
According to the U.S. Fire Administration, a division of FEMA, home heating is the second leading cause of residential fires in the country behind only cooking.
In the winter, the flue, the part of the chimney that is hard to see from inside your home is often to blame. The chimney can build up the highly flammable chemical compound creosote which comes from the smoke of open flames.
Fire departments around North Texas are posting on social channels as winter approaches urging a chimney inspection and cleaning before lighting the fireplace.
