March 26, 2009 - Fourth Apartment Fire in less than a Week

No injuries were reported

The Towne Oaks South Apartment complex was the scene of Shreveport’s fourth apartment fire in less than six days. The Shreveport Fire Department received an emergency 9-1-1 call from a workman at the apartment complex around 11:01 a.m. reporting a fire in apartment #609. Firefighters arrived on-scene six minutes later to find heavy smoke billowing from the second floor apartment #612. Once fire crews entered the second floor apartment, they discovered flames coming from the wall of the bathroom, which indicted the fire could have originated in the downstairs apartment and traveled through the wall to the upstairs apartment.

The fire was completely extinguished in less than thirty minutes; no injuries were reported. Multiple apartments received heavy smoke damage.

Shreveport’s Fire Investigator Mike Hood classified this fire as accidental. Results from his on-scene investigation proved that the fire started at the hands of the plumber. When a plumber was soldering copper conduit to the bathroom shower, the heat transferred from the hot copper pipe onto old dry wood and ignited, which caused the fire. When the plumber realized the gravity of the situation, he called 9-1-1.