Elderly And Disabled Residents Escape Fire In Downtown Sacramento High-Rise

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - A woman was overcome tonight in a fire that sent smoke billowing through a Midtown Sacramento high-rise.

A CBS13 camera was rolling as smoke poured out of the Capitol Terrace apartment building at around 6:20 p.m. Monday.

"I heard somebody yelling 'fire, fire, fire,' so I ran out here and flames were bursting out of the apartment window right here," said a resident. The apartment is located in the 1800 block of Capitol Avenue.

The flames broke out of the first floor of the public housing building with nine stories full of older and disabled residents.

"We knew that non-ambulatory people and people that need assistance live in this building," said Sacramento Metro Fire Battalion Chief Niko King. "There's a lot of people here that have a lot of problems and there's some people that probably can't get out right now."

Firefighters took on the task of going door-to-door, evacuating residents who couldn't get out themselves as crews worked to knock down the flames

Connie Madan had a hard time getting out.

"We started to go down the stair well over here and it was so filled of smoke we couldn't," said Madan.

"There were actually people reported trapped on the second floor," said King.

Eventually everyone would be able to get out safely. Three people complained of smoke inhalation, wile one of the residents so overcome by emotion she had to be tended to, not knowing how much she lost.