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CENTERVILLE — Four people were treated for smoke inhalation and a cat was killed in a fire that torched at least one unit and damaged others at the Cedar Springs Condominiums on Saturday afternoon.
"It looked like it was straight out of a movie," said Quin Kofford, a neighboring resident who was walking his dog when the fire broke out about 11:50 a.m.
Kofford said he ran into the building, 88 W. 50 South, and helped evacuate residents, including three women who were in the room where flames had already burned a bed and the drapes on the windows.
He said they were attempting to extinguish the fire by putting blankets over it.
Kofford obtained a fire extinguisher from another neighbor and went back into the burning unit, but by then "there was so much smoke," he said.
It was pitch black, and I couldn't see a thing. There was nothing anybody could do at that point. It was so big.
–Quin Kofford, resident
"It was pitch black, and I couldn't see a thing," Kofford said. "There was nothing anybody could do at that point. It was so big."
Firefighters arrived shortly afterward and attacked the flames from both the inside and outside of the unit. They later found the pet cat deceased.
"Pets are just like family to all of us, so that is an unfortunate incident here today," said South Davis Metro Fire Chief Jeff Bassett.
The unit where the fire originated was uninhabitable, Bassett said, and residents were receiving assistance from the Red Cross.
Three other units sustained smoke and water damage totalling about $80,000, he said.
Four people were treated at the scene for minor smoke inhalation issues. All were released in good health.
A dog was retrieved from the unit unharmed. The cause of the fire remains unknown.
