NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The North Little Rock Fire Department responded to a fire at the Timbers at Lakewood Wednesday evening.
"Fire units received the call at approximately 6 p.m.," North Little Rock Fire Capt. Gary Williams said. "We arrived at the scene and confirmed it was an apartment complex, about 20 units... that's when they began extinguishing operations."
Williams said no lives were lost, but the cause of the fire is still undetermined.
"No casualties at this time except for a family pet," Williams said. "18 residents were displaced from their homes. It's still under investigation [and] still pretty early... you can tell, obviously, the magnitude of it, so we're still digging."
Williams said that upon arrival, crews immediately jumped into action to try and extinguish the fire, which took roughly two hours.
"I guarantee firefighters across the nation, you can talk with them, and they'll tell you, if they had to run into 100 of these as opposed to covering out one recovery, they'd do it all day long," Williams said.
Atlas Harris, a Timbers at Lakewood resident, experienced the fire and said it all happened quickly.
"That was the room I kept my bird in [and] that's the living room," said Harris, retracing her steps along the fire-damaged building. "I was just praying for the fire not to reach the tree."
Harris said that's when he immediately jumped into survival mode, grabbed all his pets and rushed out the door.
"All that smoke entered my lungs, even though I was only breathing it for a couple minutes," Harris said. "It felt like dystopian because this huge black cloud of smoke... the wind and the rain... made it all worse."
Harris said the fire didn't quite reach his apartment, but it suffered from water and heat damage from the intense flames. Overall, he is grateful to be alive.
"I'm hoping things are going to get replaced, and thankfully, no lives were lost," Harris said. "I feel bad for the lost puppy because that's awful, and I'm going to miss my neighbors."
The American Red Cross is assessing the damage at the Timbers at Lakewood and helping displaced families.