Five injured in 3 alarm fire

SOUTH SALT LAKE — Five people have been injured in a three-alarm fire at an apartment complex.

The Monday morning fire engulfed the top floors of an apartment building here at the Mountain Shadows Apartments, 3757 S. 700 West. Two mothers with children on the top floors threw their children out the windows to people trying to catch them two floors down.

"Their mother started throwing the kids through the window and they would try to catch them," said Edith Garcia, a neighbor. "Unfortunately, they didn't catch one of them and he fell through the floor."

She clutched a barefoot 4-year-old boy who looked stunned. He shivered in the early morning cold. Firefighters said they arrived at about 9 a.m. to find the building engulfed in flames.

"I heard a pop, almost like a gunshot it sounded like," said Scotty Silveira. "I turned around and you could smell the sulfur. I turned around and that's when all the flames were there."

Silveira said a woman was screaming for help. He rushed to help catch her kids.

"You see it on TV all the time. It's different when it's right there and it's really happening," he said.

South Salt Lake Fire Chief Steve Foote said firefighters who arrived first on the scene threw a ladder up immediately to rescue one of the women.

"We were here within two minutes," he said.

Foote said he was angry that a fire hydrant located just outside the apartment building did not work.

"This hydrant was dry. It was turned off," Foote said. Instead, firefighters had to string hoses 400 yards to another hydrant on 700 West.

Foote said the hydrant is owned by the apartment complex. Managers for the Mountain Shadows Apartments declined to comment Monday morning.

Firefighters from Murray, Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Midvale, Sandy and the Unified Fire Authority responded to help battle the blaze.

Among those injured were a 15-month-old child and a toddler with a broken ankle. There was also a 59-year-old man with burns to his hands from trying to help rescue people. The injuries were not considered life threatening.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com