Woman Hospitalized With Burns After Apartment Fire

A woman, 24, is being treated in Lubbock for burns to 80 percent of her body after a fire broke out in her apartment building.

It happened at 2:15 a.m. Thursday at the Celina Apartments in the 8500 block of Viscount in East Central El Paso.

Thirteen fire crews found one of the upstairs apartment units engulfed in smoke and flames when they arrived.

Investigators said they don’t know the cause, but that it started in an upstairs apartment. The resident in the neighboring apartment was injured after she tried to get out of her place through the front door.

“She was trying to exit her building, but the flames were already lapping onto the next door,” said Sam Pena, the battalion chief for the El Paso Fire Department. “As she came out, she received some burns to her feet and hands, as well as throughout her body.”

The woman, only described as a 24-year-old, was taken to University Medical Center for treatment, but later flown to the Lubbock burn center. Fire officials say her injuries ranged from first- to third-degree burns.

Crews evacuated four apartment units. Six residents waited in a Sun Metro bus for shelter while crews battled the blaze. It took them 30 minutes to get the fire under control.

Pena recommends that residents install a smoke detector and have two escape routes from their homes in case one is blocked by flames.