Early Saturday morning, Wilmington Firefighters on the B-Platoon were dispatched to 608 Lea Boulevard for a reported structure fire, according to Battalion Chief John M. Looney.
Looney said incident commander, Battalion Chief Michael Harris arrived on scene to find heavy smoke showing from a three story apartment building and immediately requested additional resources.
First arriving unit Engine 3 located the fire inside of a first floor apartment and made an aggressive fire attack confining the fire to the apartment of origin. Simultaneously, additional crews searched all levels of the building for occupants with negative results. The occupants had exited the building prior to the fire department’s arrival.
Battalion Chief Harris placed the scene under control at 7:40 am with units working. The apartment sustained significant fire damage. The American Red Cross is assisting residents of the building that were displaced. Several occupants of the building were evaluated by emergency medical personnel on scene but were not transported to the hospital.
The Wilmington Fire Marshal’s Office responded to the scene and is currently investigating the origin and cause of the fire. Wilmington License & Inspections responded and deemed the apartment uninhabitable.
Approximately 30 fire and EMS personnel responded to the fire. The following units responded: Engine 3,
Squad 4, Engine 5, Engine 1, Ladder 1, Ladder 2, Battalion-1, Battalion-2, Deputy 4, FM-13, St. Francis
EMS, New Castle County Medics, Wilmington Licenses & Inspections, Delmarva Power, and the
American Red Cross.