AKRON, Ohio — No injuries were reported from a fire that broke out at the Timber Top Apartments and Townhomes Wednesday afternoon in Akron.
Authorities tell 3News they were called to the scene at building 24 around 4:30 p.m. Fire companies found heavy flames and smoke coming from the back of the building. Nineteen of the 26 units were occupied at the time and were evacuated, with the department reporting all residents made it out safely.
"It could have been a lot worse yeah, so we're very fortunate we have a lot of great firefighters here in Akron and Cuyahoga Falls that were able to get here in a timely matter," said Lt. Tim Morrison, Akron Fire Department public information officer.
Many residents watched firefighters extinguish their apartments, devastated by the loss.
"This was my first home and I worked really hard for this place, so its just really hard," resident Laurel Williamson said.
Williamson and her boyfriend Joshua Robertson were home when the fire started. Robertson told 3News him and other neighbors heard a loud bang right before flames took over.
He ran and woke Williamson up and knocked on their neighbor's door to help them escape too.
"We had like three minutes, not even, to get out," Robertson said.
The couple said they grabbed as many of their animals as they could, but three of them didn't make it out.
"We lost three cats. It happened so quick," Robertson said.
Timber Top has been plagued by several recent issues, including a carbon monoxide leak last October that left a 66-year-old woman dead and sent several people to the hospital. Landlords pledged after the incident to purchase CO2 detectors for the buildings, but tenants claim that still hasn't happened.
"They just don't seem to care about their tenants," Ashley Brown told 3News' Bri Buckley in December, when multiple apartments lost heat.