APARTMENT FIRE DISPLACES FOUR CAPE FAMILIES; THREE DEPARTMENTS RESPOND

A Monday-evening fire in Cape Girardeau destroyed an apartment building and left at least two parents and their children homeless.

It started just after 5 p.m. on a back porch of the upper north-end apartment at 3019 Themis. That tenant wasn't home, but people living in the three other units were.

Interim fire chief Max Jauch said he believes the fire wasn't accidental but declined to elaborate pending further investigation. He expected to announce the cause today.

Shawn Scott and Jason Aycock, roommates who live a few buildings down and across the street, helped evacuate people from the burning building. Aycock said he and Scott were headed for the grocery store when they saw the flames.

"We took off running over there and started banging on the windows," he said. "There were people already outside, you could tell someone was still inside. Me and a couple other boys went downstairs and got one guy out."

The smoke inside the building wasn't bad at that point, he said.

The man they alerted, Jacob Nunley, said he couldn't detect any signs of a fire when Scott and Aycock knocked on his door. He was visiting his girlfriend, who lives in the lower left-hand apartment.

Nunley said his girlfriend's children were visiting a neighbor in the building and were already in the yard when he got out. He moved his car, parked in front of the building, further north on Themis.

"As sad as it is, I'm glad nobody got hurt," he said. "You can replace your valuables and get back your dignity, but you can't replace a life."

Parts of the two apartments on the second floor were gutted by fire. The two lower apartments weren't burned but had extensive water damage. As firefighters sprayed the upstairs blaze, water streamed down the insides of the downstairs windows. More water poured out the front entrance.

Four Cape Girardeau fire trucks and crews and one Jackson pumper helped fight the blaze. Another crew from Scott City manned Fire Station No. 2 on Mount Auburn Road while the regular crew responded to the call.

Two mothers living in the building were nearly hysterical during the fire. Both were away when it started, and neighbors said the two had feared for their children's lives.

All were reunited on the front porch of an apartment building across the street.