By Angie DiMichele
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — More than 60 people who were residents of a medical facility in Fort Lauderdale are displaced after a large fire erupted early Monday morning and knocked out the building’s power, Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue said.
Firefighters arrived at the privately owned medical facility, located at 465 SW 20th Ave., at about 3 a.m. and were met with a “large body of fire” in the front of the two-story apartment U-shaped building and within some of the apartment units, Deputy Chief Garrett Pingol said.
Crews went door-to-door in the building and ensured all residents were evacuated from the building, which has about 20 to 30 units inside, he said.
“Some of our firefighters did have to alert occupants that they had to leave their rooms … In the middle of the night, people tend to sleep through events like this,” Pingol said.
The blaze was extinguished within 30 minutes, and no one was injured, which Pingol called “truly remarkable,” given the number of people living in the building and the fire breaking out overnight. One person was taken to a hospital for evaluation, Pingol said.
The address is that of a rehabilitation facility, TLC Recovery Center South, according to reports.
The fire was at a housing facility associated with Evolutions Treatment Center,, attorney Joseph Goldglantz, whose office represents Evolutions Treatment Center, said in an email. The treatment center’s website lists three facilities in South Florida, including a “partial hospitalization property” in Fort Lauderdale for people to recover from addiction.
Pingol said he could not share preliminary information about where they believe the fire began but said most of the damage to the building is isolated to part of the first and second floors in the southeast part of the building.
“The building is definitely salvageable,” Pingol said. “Our personnel were probably responsible for the fact that 80% of the building is unaffected.”
Pingol said the displaced residents have been sent to other associated facilities.
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