‘Bloody panic’ — 5 injured jumping from Riverside apartment windows as fire raged

Five people were injured early Thursday, Sept. 17, when they jumped from second-story windows as a fire blocked their escape in an apartment complex in downtown Riverside, the incident commander said.

Three people, including a pregnant woman, suffered broken legs, said Battalion Chief Matt Stibel of the Riverside Fire Department.

One firefighter was treated for exhaustion.

Three dogs perished in the blaze, but firefighters rescued two others.

Firefighters arrived about 2:20 a.m. at the two-story complex in the 3400 block of Fifth Street to find an apartment unit fully engulfed by flames. The five who jumped had done so, while people were hanging out of the windows of an adjacent apartment, Stibel said.

Firefighters placed ladders against the windows and helped them get down. Flames had also blocked their escape, but their apartment did not burn.

It was a hastily performed rescue.

“You’re running up there, and you’re grabbing them,” Stibel said.

A lithium-ion battery might have ignited the fire, Stibel said, but that was under investigation.

There are windows in the front and back of the apartment that burned. Two people jumped out the back and three leapt out the front.

“Panic. Bloody panic,” Stibel said.

Fire damage was limited to the one apartment. The unit below it sustained water damage.

While such rescues are dramatic, they are fortunately rare, Stibel said.

“Low frequency and high risk,” Stibel said around 11 a.m. Thursday.

“We practice for low frequency and high risk,” he said. “It was seamless and performed with very little guidance from me. Guys just went straight to work. They do it without hesitation.”

Four adults were displaced and getting assistance from the Red Cross.