COLUMBIA — A cooking fire caused about $20,000 in damage to an apartment Wednesday night, according to a news release from the Columbia Fire Department.
The Fire Department responded to the call at 1411 Wilkes Blvd. around 8 p.m. after a pot of oil on the stove in Apartment E caught on fire. Columbia Fire Department Battalion Chief Gary L. Warren Jr. said it took firefighters only a few minutes to extinguish the fire using a hose. According to the release, the fire was contained in the kitchen.
The release said one of the apartment’s residents noticed the fire’s reflection in a window, left the apartment with her sister and her dog and called 911. The smoke detector in the apartment had no batteries in it, Warren said.
No one was injured, the release said, but the residents of the fire-damaged apartment were unable to return to it.
Residents of the apartment complex waited for about an hour outside the building while firefighters extinguished the fire, used a fan to blow out the smoke, ensured that the fire did not spread to other parts of the apartment and cleaned up, Warren said.
He said it took the fire department four minutes to get to the apartment building after receiving the call.