COLUMBIA, S.C. — Columbia Fire Department and Irmo Fire say an early morning fire caused heavy damage at Briargate Condominiums in the St. Andrews area.
The condominium community is located on Menlo Drive, just off of Broad River Road.
The two-alarm blaze is on the third floor of one of the buildings and has damaged multiple units.
More than 40 fire personnel from Columbia and Irmo responded to the fire.
Fire Chief Aubrey Jenkins says one adult who lives in Briargate was injured and treated on the scene. The person was burned outside of the building when a piece of debris fell onto their foot.
Approximately 21 people were displaced as a result of the fire and are being helped by The American Red Cross.
At one point during the fire, Chief Jenkins says they had to call a 'Code Red'.
"A code red means that we had to get everybody, all our firefighters out of the building because it was burning on the roof, so we had to get everybody out," Chief Jenkins explains.
Drivers did report seeing smoke from the highway as crews worked to get control.
The fire was contained to one building because of the firewall.
"If it had not been for that firewall, we probably would have the roof burned completely off. So it did contain it, at least to one side that we were able to get in and extinguish this fire," Jenkins said.
Chief Jenkins says the building had 12 units, 10 of which were occupied. He says most of the damage is to the top apartments, but there is also water damage to units on the other floors.
It is not clear how many families were displaced. Fire crews are working with building management to determine how many people will need assistance and the Red Cross is on scene helping those families.
The Richland County Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
The Fire Chief says the department is working with management because they often respond to fires at this apartment complex.
"Obviously we've had several fires here, I don't have the number right now, but it seems like this is a constant thing out here. We continue to come out to fires, so we just got to really dwell down and see what we can do to prevent these fires; get with the management and make sure these apartments are checked out thoroughly or make sure there's nobody out there just doing these random acts. So, that's one thing once [the] Richland County Fire Marshal gets out here, they'll be investigating," Jenkins said.
This is a developing story. Stay with News19 for the latest.
