| Updated: 1/16/2009 10:37 pm |
Published: 1/16/2009 6:04 pm |
FOX16 has new information about Thursday night's Little Rock house fire. It happened at a home on the 2200 block of South Pine Street.
Firefighters rescued a woman trapped inside by the flames. Investigators still haven't released that woman's name, but they do tell FOX16 she is now in critical condition in the burn unit at Arkansas Children's Hospital.
"Get her out! Grandma is in there! Is you out? Where is she at? You know, so it was a bunch of chaos," says neighbor Akil Akbar.
Friday, the insurance adjustor and firefighters tried to make sense of that chaos by getting to the bottom of what caused the South Pine Street home to burn.
A source close to the investigation tells FOX16, people may be to blame for the flames, but officially the cause is still under investigation.
When asked if there had been previous problems at the house, Akbar replied, "No major problems. Minor disturbances, but no major problems."
Akbar also wants to know what happened. "I heard them hollering. That's what got my attention. And I heard the crackling from the fire, you know, you can hear it so that's what got my attention," says Akbar.
Akbar has lived next door for 15 years and says a lot of people were staying at 2204 South Pine. "Three adults and about four or five teenagers, and one baby, and an old lady," he says.
And the woman couldn't escape because the fire started at the front of the house and spread too quickly. Firefighters cut a hole in the wall, and the rescue took only five minutes, but it took long enough that she suffered third degree burns over much of her body.
Everyone from the insurance inspector, to firefighters, and even police officers in this case, want to know what, or who, did this.
No one can live in the house anymore and the Little Rock Fire Department tells FOX16 the fire caused $40,000 worth of damage. Fire investigators say we could find out the cause as early as Saturday, but as of last check they were still interviewing family members.
The Red Cross is helping four people who lived at that house with emergency shelter. The group also found places to stay for six families from the Watergate Apartments, which burned Wednesday.
