Saturday fire in Junction City-photo courtesy JC Police
GEARY COUNTY- Officials are working to determine the cause of a major fire at an apartment complex early Saturday.
Just after 1a.m., firefighters and law enforcement from multiple agencies responded to the blaze at 1810 Carolina Avenue in Junction City.
Junction City Fire Chief Terry Johnson confirmed Building B, containing 26 apartment units, is a loss.
“Our first arriving units came in. We had heavy fire on the south side of the building and fire was through the roof, we started operations. We went through several evolutions of operations at this point. The building is a loss at this time, unfortunately,” according to Johnson.
By five a.m. the fire had been mostly contained, but there were still a lot of hot spots in the building, and ladder fire trucks were being utilized to provide firefighters a better view of the top of the structure.
Johnson confirmed all residents of the apartment building got out safely. He estimated approximately 40 to 50 residents were displaced. “Red Cross is on scene. They’re helping out with providing food for the firefighters and support needs for the residents.” Johnson expressed gratitude for all the communities that came in to provide assistance in dealing with the fire.
Geary County Emergency Management Director Garry Berges said they will help coordinate with the agencies. “We helped provide communication between the surrounding county agencies that came in…the Manhattan Fire, Fort Riley Fire, we made sure everybody could talk so everybody knew what was going on. We’ll be here to support. We made sure the Red Cross was available to help, not only the firefighters, but also the displaced residents.”
This is the second time there has been a major fire at the Bluffs Apartment Complex. In April of 2016 an apartment building at that complex was destroyed by fire.