Firefighters Battle Apartment Fire, Winds This Morning

Mentor firefighters battled an apartment fire this morning and prevented it from spreading beyond the unit where it started.

Firefighters were called at 6:30 a.m. to Mentor Park Apartments, at 7959 Mentor Ave., because of a blaze in Building 2, Mentor Fire Chief Richard Harvey said.

The building where the fire began has two apartments and this morning's were blowing the flames from the burning unit toward the other apartment, Harvey said.

"With the high winds, it immediately became a defensive fire," Harvey said. "The wind was blowing it everywhere."

At first, firefighters sprayed the flames from outside. Once the fire was under control, they went inside the scorched apartment and doused the remaining flames.

The apartment where the fire began is completely gutted, Harvey said.

"There will be nothing salvaged from the unit," he said.

However, the other apartment in the building only had smoke damage because firefighters stopped the flames before they could spread to it.

Nobody was hurt during the fire. The person who lives in the scorched apartment had left for work before the fire began, Harvey said.

The chief said it was too soon to say what caused the fire, how much damage it did or even where in the apartment it began.

Fighting the fire was further complicated by the amount of wind-related calls the fire department has received this morning.

"We have between 30 to 50 other calls going on – trees down, wires, trees on houses. It's nasty," Harvey said.

The chief also warned people to be careful when dealing with downed power lines.

"You never know if they're energized," he said.