Woman Injured in Jump From N.Y. Apartment Fire

Sept. 01--A couple jumped from a second-story window as a furious fire swept through their apartment at Walden and Bailey avenues this morning, fire officials and witnesses said.

The woman appeared to have suffered serious though non life-threatening injuries from the jump.

"She was laying on the ground. I guess she must have been hurt pretty bad," said Kevin Lett, who lives in the next apartment over from the couple.

Unable to escape from his apartment, Lett was rescued by firefighters who put a ladder up to his window.

The fire at the two-story brick building was reported just before 8 a.m.

Lett said he had just received a phone call from a friend and had gotten dressed when he smelled smoke.

He "looked out in my hall and it was full of smoke," Lett said. "I wasn't able to get out through the hallway. It was too much smoke in there. I couldn't see."

He didn't seen any flames.

"But I could hear the fire," he said.

He yelled to his two other neighbors who all live on the second floor and heard only one.

Lett, a peer counselor with WNY Independent Living, ran back inside his apartment and looked out the window to see the man and the woman on the sidewalk below.

A fire truck pulled up and firefighters put a ladder up to Lett, who said he struggled a little bit getting out of his window but was more than happy to be getting out of the burning building.

"It was good because I was getting out of there," he said with a smile.

In the meantime, another resident of the building, Leroy Pierce, a painter, said he looked in the hallway and first noticed nothing.

He went back into his apartment when he heard Lett yelling for him. He came back to the hallway and found it filled with smoke.

"It was ugly," he said.

Pierce was able to get to a back exit and escaped on his own.

Buffalo Fire Division Chief Donald McFeely said the morning fire quickly escalated to a second-alarm because of the size of the building.

"We didn't know how many apartments were occupied," he said.

While there were three apartments on the second floor, the first-floor was vacant store front with bars on the windows making it difficult for firefighters to get into the structure.

"It was boarded up and filled with junk," McFeely said.

The woman who jumped was taken by Erie County Medical Center, McFeely said. The man is believed to have refused aid. No one else was injured.

The Red Cross was assisting the victims find shelter.

The fire is estimated to have cost about $100,000 in damage to the building.

The cause was under investigation.

Pierce said he didn't think he'd able to live in his apartment anymore.

"I hope we can get back in to get some stuff," he said.

Lett was happy to have escaped unhurt.

"It's a blessing," he said. "I made it and I'm alive."

mbecker@buffnews.com

Copyright 2012 - The Buffalo News, N.Y.