Charlotte Fire Department

Just after 1:00 am Saturday morning March 14, Charlotte Firefighters were called to service for reports of an apartment on fire at the “Silver Oak Apartments” in East Charlotte. This assignment included Battalion 4, Engines 3, 29, 14 and Ladder 29. At 01:18 the call was upgraded to a working fire with persons possibly trapped in the apartment and this added Battalion 1, Engine 23 and Rescue 3.

Battalion 4 and Engine 3 arrived at 01:20 and found a two story apartment building with seven units. Unit seven had smoke and flames visible on both floors. Battalion 4 assumed Command and immediately requested a second alarm. Firefighters from Engine 3 took hose lines into the burning apartment building in an effort to knock down the fire and search for the trapped occupants. Battalion 4 established Incident Command. Ladder 29 started searching and Engine 14 pulled a backup line and assisted with searching.

The crew of Engine 3 found a 13 year old female in an upstairs bedroom and removed her to the EMS area which was set up in Division "D". The crew of Ladder 29 found a 2 year old female and the mother (age unknown) and removed them with the assistance of numerous companies. EMS personnel pronounced the mother DOA and CPR was started on the two children. Firefighters accompanied MEDIC to CMC and assisted with patient care and transport. Both patients were worked at Carolinas Medical Center but tragically they did not survive. Even though there was a large amount of fire on both floors and three people were rescued, crews were able to contain the fire damage to the unit of origin. All victims were found in the same bedroom. Charlotte Fire Investigators determined that this tragic fire was caused by food left cooking on the stove.