WEST JORDAN -- As many as 50 residents of a 12-unit apartment complex were looking for new homes Thursday after a fire raged through their building Wednesday night.
Two residents suffered smoke inhalation after the blaze trapped them inside their apartment, West Jordan Fire Capt. Randy Johnson said. Firefighters used a ladder to rescue the two residents from a window on the top floor.Paramedics transported the victims to Pioneer Valley Hospital. Their names were not available Thursday morning. Nobody else was injured, Johnson said.
The fire started about 9 p.m. and destroyed at least four apartments. Other units sustained water damage, Johnson said.
The blaze appeared to have started on the top level on the east side of the building, 8281 S. Redwood Road (1700 West). The fire burned its way to the west side, destroying the units on the top level, Johnson said.
All of the building's residents, up to 50 people, will have to find elsewhere to live for now, Johnson said. The damage caused by the blaze will likely take weeks to repair.
The Red Cross and local leaders from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were on hand to help the residents find shelter Wednesday night.
David Johnson, who lived in one of the apartments destroyed by the blaze, was planning to stay in a motel with his wife and two children. He was watching TV when he heard pounding and screaming outside his door.
"I went outside and there was so much smoke," he said. "All I cared about was getting my family out."
The person who pounded on residents' doors was Shawn Rivard, who lives across the street. He was outside when he noticed flames climbing up the side of the building, he said.
Rivard, 24, ran inside his apartment and told his wife to call 911. Then he and a friend, Justin Guymon, sprinted to the building and started knocking on doors. Nobody inside the building knew it was on fire until Rivard started pounding.
"It was wild," Rivard said. "I've never felt so much adrenaline. I think I could've carried people down the stairs."
By the time Rivard finished pounding on doors, the blaze had moved toward the center of the building. Flames were shooting 20 to 30 feet above the structure.
"The higher you would go (on the stairs), the hotter it would get," Rivard said. "I had to put my shirt over my face to breathe, and you could barely see because the smoke was so thick."
Fire investigators were still looking for the cause Thursday. A damage estimate was not available, but repair costs appeared to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.