Eastside apartment fire dislocates family

A father had to break a window to get his family out of their apartment after a fire broke out.

It happened just before two this morning at the Paseo Park apartments near the intersection of Rojas Drive and Pendale Road in east El Paso. Neighbors tell us they heard a loud pop. When they went outside to check where the sound came from, they saw flames pouring out of the front of the apartment building. A family of five were in the apartment at the time of the fire. The father was able to get his wife and three young children out safely through a back window. He had a few cuts on his arms from the glass and was treated at the scene. He told emergency crews he didn’t need to go to the hospital. There were no other injuries to any residents or fire fighters.

Fire crews were able to put out the blaze in about ten minutes and kept it from spreading inside the apartment or to any other apartment units. The red cross was called out to help out the family of five find a place to stay for the time being. The fire captain at the scene tells me the damage is estimated at 15-thousand dollars. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but we’re told it started in a storage closet, and might have been caused by a faulty washer or dryer.