Residents wake to fire, smoke

Law student Robert Brandt said he thought his smoke alarm was malfunctioning when it went off early Sunday morning. After fumbling with it, he looked out the window of his third-floor apartment and found that he was wrong.\nSeeing smoke outside, he got dressed and went to the front door -- his apartment's only exit -- to leave.\n"I opened the door and got hit with a wall of smoke," he said.\nRetreating to his apartment, Brandt turned to a window for escape.\n"I had to wait for the fire department to get there," he said. "The smoke was so thick in my room by that time that I was hanging out the window."\nFirefighters responding to the two-alarm fire helped Brandt and three other residents from the Maple Leaf Apartments complex at 407 S. Grant St., said Bloomington Fire Department Battalion Chief Dean Williams.\nNo one was injured and the fire was out within minutes of the fire department's arrival, Williams said.\nThe fire started in the central stairwell of the apartment building, which has 12 units, Williams said. Because it engulfed that stairwell, most residents had to escape by the windows, he said.\nLaw student Jami Thompson said she also had to escape her third-floor apartment by ladder. She also discovered the wall of smoke in the stairwell when a smoke alarm alerted her while she was watching television and preparing an outline for class, she said.\nBrandt and Thompson gathered on the steps of a neighboring apartment building with other residents to find out the fates of their apartments and belongings. At about 3:30 a.m, an hour after the fire started, firefighter George Cornwell gave them the news that they would be able to return after the fire department had documented the scene.\nWilliams said the four apartments adjacent to the stairwell received the most damage, but that all of them had some smoke damage. \nAs for Brandt, his apartment appeared to have the most damage. He has renter's insurance but is living in a hotel for now.\n "My place is a complete wreck," he said. "I probably lost 80 percent of my stuff"