Neighbor saves residents from apartment fire

wtvd

By ABC11

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

DURHAM Many residents at the Royal Oaks Apartments were asleep when they were awakened and told to get out. One neighbor's quick actions probably saved lives.

"I ran around and pounded on a bunch of doors," a resident told Eyewitness News. "Presumably every one that I pounded on heard me. That's all I could do. Then I got my roommate out. My roommate was sound asleep."

One resident said she heard her neighbor's knocking.

"The young man came to tell us that the apartment was on fire," Carolyn Williams said. "My husband went to check it out and it hit him in the face, and we just ran out."

It was the unit next to the Williams' that was on fire. The family lost everything.

"It's me, my husband and my handicapped daughter, and we don't have nowhere to go," Williams said. "We got two relatives in Durham."

There is no word on what caused the fire.