No one hurt in Coralville apartment fire

CORALVILLE - No one was hurt and everyone is safe after an apartment building caught on fire around 5:30 Monday evening. It happened at 971 Boston Way in Coralville, near the Coralridge Mall.

Earlier in the afternoon, drivers could smell the smoke from a few miles away.

A group of children rushed inside the apartment building moments after the fire started. “I yelled, ‘Get out. Get out!' There is a fire,” 9-year-old Parrish Forrest said.

11-year-old Carl Ervin said, “It was kind of scary. We couldn't breathe at the time. But, we weren't worried about us. We were worried about our friends and family and how they were going to get out.”

Fourteen people live in the building. All of them escaped without getting hurt. “We just did everything we could to get everybody out safe,” Ervin said.

Firefighters faced all the challenges they typically do in these kinds of situations, but they also had to battle the wind.

“It was hot enough to melt the siding on the building 50 feet away,” Coralville Fire Chief Dave Stannard said.

As more and more people who live here got word, they rushed to the scene. “At first, I just wanted to run upstairs and get my stuff, but they said if I did that, I was going to get tackled. So, I was like, I don't want to get tackled,” 16-year-old Shaikim Bolden said.

They knew their memories were melting right before their eyes. 14-year-old Shadarius Bolden said, “My grandma's pictures are in there and also her ashes from when she died.”

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fire. The fire department is still trying to determine whether the fire is suspicious or intentionally set.