A woman who jumped out of an apartment building to escape a fire Saturday morning suffered serious injuries and was transported to a local trauma center, according to officials.
The Berkeley Fire Department responded to a report of a fire at 3144 King Street, between Woolsey and Fairview streets at 9:01 a.m., according to Deputy Fire Chief Avery Webb. The fire erupted in a hallway outside a bedroom on the third floor and created a lot of black smoke, he said.
Two women were inside the bedroom when the fire started, said Webb. One apparently tried to escape by jumping from the window to a tree, but the branch sje landed on broke and she fell three stories to the ground, said Webb. The other woman was rescued by firefighters.
The fire appears to have started accidentally near a wall heater in the hallway right near the bedroom, said Webb. It was relatively small and the firefighters put it out quickly. There did not appear to be any structural damage to the building, he said. Two people were displaced by the fire – the woman who was living in the apartment and a tenant below. The building contains four or five units, said Webb.
Webb did not have the names or ages of the women who were trapped in the structure.
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