Firefighters plucked three people from an apartment fire on North Street Saturday morning.
One man is being treated at Griffin Hospital for smoke inhalation.
The fire was reported at about 4:45 a.m. at the Sunny Knoll apartment complex — a three-building complex with about 24 units in each three-story building.
Firefighters entering building saw heavy smoke in a common hallway on the third floor.
While most of the residents made it out of the building, three people — a mother, father and two-year-old girl — could not get out of their third floor apartment due to the smoke condition in the hallway, Deputy Fire Marshal Timm Willis said.
“I tried to get down the hallway, but there was just too much smoke for me to make the hallway,” said Willis, who is also a lieutenant with the Seymour fire department. ​“I closed the door and went back outside.”
Firefighters then used a ground ladder to get the family out a window. They were not injured.
FirstDueFirePhotos.com has a photo gallery from the scene.
The fire started in a neighboring apartment on the third floor.
A resident was cooking fries, but fell asleep without taking the food off the stove.
That resident was taken to Griffin Hospital, where he was treated for smoke inhalation. He was expected to be released Saturday.
The fire gutted the apartment’s kitchen. There was substantial smoke damage in the rest of the apartment, Willis said.
Two apartments on the first and second floor suffered water damage.
The Valley Red Cross is making arrangements to assist the people who were living in the three damaged apartments.
Seymour’s Citizen Engine Co. No 2 and the Great Hill Hose Co. responded to the scene. A rapid intervention team was called in from Oxford. Fire departments from Beacon Falls and Ansonia were called into Seymour to cover the town.