Fire Strikes Woodbury Apartment Building

Three people were hospitalized and two cats died in a Sunday fire at a Woodbury apartment building.

The fire broke out in a kitchen at the Woodland Pointe apartment complex on Ashwood Road off Weir Drive.

A resident tried to put the grease fire out with salt, and when that didn’t work tried water, which spread the fire further, according to Mike Richardson, Woodbury emergency services coordinator.

The fire started on the third floor of the building and four units were affected, Richardson said.

“The main unit itself was pretty well consumed by fire,” he said.

Firefighters broke through the wall of an adjacent unit and a door was left open in a unit across the hall from where the fire started, causing significant smoke damage to that apartment.

Five people were evaluated at the scene, Richardson said, and three were treated for smoke inhalation at a hospital. One firefighter was also treated on site for heat exhaustion, he said.

The Red Cross is working with eight people to find accommodations while the damage is cleaned up, Richardson said.

At the building Monday morning, not much damage was visible from the outside.

 The Woodbury Fire Department got the call at about 10:10 a.m. Sunday and the first hour was the “most intense,” Richardson said. In all, firefighters were on scene for about three hours.

Crews from Maplewood and Oakdale also responded, and the city’s police-firefighters and EMT-firefighters helped battle the blaze, Richardson said.

The entire building was evacuated and firefighters checked other units to determine the extent of the smoke damage. A rabbit in the unit across the hall survived the fire.