This article was originally published in The Examiner on Nov. 16, 2017.
By Eleanor Skelton
Staff Writer
A two-alarm fire damaged 50 apartments and injured four people at the Glen Oaks Apartments in Beaumont Saturday morning.
The fire was reported about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11 at the Glen Oaks Apartments located in the 500 block of Dowlen Road, Beaumont Fire-Rescue Captain Jimmy Blanchard said in a news release on the department’s Facebook page.
The fire quickly turned into what Beaumont Fire-Rescue calls a “second alarm,” or two-alarm fire, which means roughly double the initial resources that are dispatched to the call plus extra, Blanchard said.
Port Arthur Fire Department also responded to the call and sent firefighter crews, due to the amount of Glen Oaks residents that were being displaced and affected by the firefighting efforts.
Four people were burned in the fire, but were treated and released later in the day at a nearby hospital, Blanchard said. One of the people who was burned is a Beaumont Police patrol officer who was helping Glen Oaks residents evacuate before firefighting crews were able to arrive on scene.
About 50 apartments were damaged by the fire.
Ascension, the company that manages Glen Oaks Apartments, is moving residents to other housing, along with the help of the Red Cross, Blanchard said.
Investigators later determined that the fire was caused by a child playing with a lighter.
Eleanor Skelton 