24 Kearns apartments evacuated due to fire

KEARNS, Utah (ABC4) — A fire at a Kearns apartment complex forced the evacuation of two dozen apartment units on Monday afternoon, March 25.

Drone footage provided to ABC4 by Andy Munoz (@andyxmunoz), which can be seen in the video player above, showed firefighters on top of the roof of the apartments that appeared to be under construction. Smoke can be seen flowing from the openings in the roof as one firefighter sprays water inside.

Unified Fire Authority responded to a fire at an apartment complex located near 4700 Thorncrest Way around 12:30 p.m. They said the apartment’s exterior was being remodeled but the apartment was fully occupied at the time of the fire.

UFA officials said the fire was found in the attic and extinguished within approximately 30 minutes, however, there was still significant damage to the upper levels of the apartment.

Officials said 24 apartment units were evacuated during the two-alarm blaze, and three to four families were displaced due to the damage. The Red Cross will be assisting the families affected.

According to UFA, all residents and their pets were evacuated safely from the building.

The cause of the fire is currently under investigation, however, UFA Public Information Officer Kelly Bird said “We do have some suspicions of some potential construction going on, that’s speculative at this point, but we do know that it was probably incidental in nature.”

“Because of the fast action of the crews on scene they were able to stop it, with the wind blowing it could have gotten a little bit worse,” Bird said.

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