Utility pole sparks 4-alarm apartment fire in northwest Dallas

DALLAS - A collapsed utility pole started an apartment fire that sent people scrambling late Monday night.

It happened around 11:30 p.m. at the Tivoli Apartments on Lina Street near the President George Bush Turnpike in far northwest Dallas.

Dallas Fire-Rescue spokesman Jason Evans said the pole fell onto the side of the building and sparked a fire within the floor spaces and attic.

Resident Iashauna Hatley said she heard a large boom and then saw smoke and flames outside her window. She and her family hurried to get out.

“Everybody was asleep except for me. He (husband) had already dozed off and then when we heard the boom. That’s when he started to get up to start looking like, ‘What is that?’ We’re usually asleep by that time,” Hatley said. “I’m just glad we were able to make it down the stairs to make it out.”

Evans said all of the residents were able to safely make it out of the apartment building before firefighters arrived. No one was hurt.

There weren’t many visible flames but DFR still needed to call in about 100 firefighters to fight the hard-to-reach fire.  They had to use hand tools to manually breach the walls.

“There was fire throughout the floor spaces. It’s a three-story apartment building. You had fire in the floor spaces between the first and second floor, as well as the second and third floor. And there was more fire in the attic,” Evans said.

All 12 apartments in the building were burned and are now uninhabitable.

The American Red Cross is helping the displaced residents.