INDIANAPOLIS -
Fire destroyed 12 units and displaced 38 people Saturday in a southwest side apartment complex. Investigators are trying to determine if the dangerously dry weather was behind the fast-moving fire.
It happened at the Mann Village Apartments off Mann Road. Everyone got out safely, thanks to the effort of one man.
"I was home. Someone banged on my door and saved my life. I don't know who it was," said Duane Brown, resident.
Duane Brown didn't see the person knocking at the door, but he could smell the smoke and listened to the warnings of the stranger pounding on his door
"By the time they got to gettin' everything ready, you know, it was pretty well lit then," he said.
His cat Peaches did not follow suit,
"I had to get out so I tried to get her and she went and hid. I had to come out without her," he said.
Brown got outside of his apartment as the fire department arrived. The blaze quickly became a two-alarm fire as the flames raced through the attic of the building. His cat found a place to hide from the fire, but not the water from the hoses.
"Firefighters just brought her out to me," said Brown.
The stranger who pounded on Brown's door is actually a neighbor.
"Thank you very much, dude," Brown told Rob Nixon.
They had not met until now.
"You are a hero. You saved lives," Brown told him.
Brown could not be more thankful. Nixon was outside when he saw the smoke, and he went toward the flames.
"When I got to the building, the maintenance guy was out there with a water hose at the edge of the grass and mulch and the grass was on fire," Nixon said.
The exact cause of the fire is still under investigation, but Nixon says a grass fire that had been smoldering for a few minutes just took off and seconds later "the building just went up."
Then he took off running.
"I ran around and started pounding on doors and it was an instant reaction to get people out," he said.
Duane Brown knows what he means. He owes his life to a neighbor.
The fire department says 38 people are being moved into temporary apartments. There were no injuries and the cause of the fire is under investigation
American Red Cross Volunteers will assist residents affected by the fire. There were a total of 12 units destroyed. The occupants of six units were able to find a place to stay Saturday night. The volunteers will help the other occupants.
Duane Brown is grateful to his neighbor for alerting him to the fire.
His cat, Peaches, was rescued.
Rob Nixon alerted residents to the danger.
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