CINCINNATI — About 20 people have been displaced after an early Saturday morning apartment fire in Westwood.
Cincinnati Fire District Chief Mathew Rotert said the two-alarm fire broke out at the Tamara Lee Apartments on the 2,200 block of Harrison Avenue around 5:30 a.m.
Rotert said two people jumped from a window of the second-story unit where the fire started. One person managed to run out of the apartment. Two people were transported to an area hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
"One of the reasons it spread so quickly was the door to the apartment that was originally on fire was left open when the resident left," Rotert said. "So when the apartment was left open, it went up the stairwell pretty quickly."
Unattended cooking is said to be the cause of the fire.
A striking example from a fire this morning of the need to keep bedroom doors closed to prevent fire spread. Fire made it all the way to this closed apartment door but almost no damage on the other side. #closebeforeyoudoze pic.twitter.com/HQDZJ9IoMH
— Cincy Fire & EMS (@CincyFireEMS) May 30, 2021
All three floors, potentially two dozen apartments, were impacted by the fire. The Red Cross has been called in to help the 20 displaced residents.
Officials are estimating the damage at about $200,000.
