Morning apartment fire forces evacuation of Tukwila residents

A fire forced the evacuation of the fifth and sixth floors of a Tukwila apartment building Tuesday.

Firefighters arrived at the complex off Tukwila International Boulevard to find flames coming from an HVAC unit on the roof.

More news: Egg truck crashed on SR 18 blocks road

“Units arrived and started investigating that smoke as residents were evacuating,” Eric Autry with Puget Sound Fire told KIRO Newsradio. “They eventually made it to the roof where they found an air handling unit with some fire shilling.

The fire was contained to the roof. Firefighters said there was water damage to some parts of the building.

“At this time our priority is getting the residents into a safe space and seeing which units can be reoccupied or not,” Autry explained.

Jesus Cardinas doesn’t know whether his apartment is one of those impacted by the smoke and water.

“I started to see some smoke so I told my sister to get the kids out of the house,” Cardinas said. His family lives on the sixth floor. “Then it was really fast. In less than a minute the hallways got dark.”

More from Sam Campbell: Sodo shooting leaves two men in ‘serious condition’

Cardinas said this was not the first time a fire has happened in the apartment building and that residents are concerned.

Contributing: Sam Campbell/KIRO Newsradio