The housing market may be teeming with properties that sellers are unable to discard, but that does not merit misfortunes such as this: a fire in Alabama claimed ten apartment units and three lives.

On the 19^th of September, just after 5 AM, Birmingham Firefighters answered a two-alarm fire in Beaconview Apartments in Alabama. Birmingham Firefighters Chief C.W. Mardis shares a mix of good and bad news: ten occupants were rescued but three were unable to get out.

“We were able to rescue 10 of the occupants, unfortunately three of the occupants were unable to get out. So we do have three fatalities at this time,” says Mardis.

The fatalities – a mother and her two children – were the tenants of the source of the fire. Living in the upstairs apartment, the mother returned home earlier in the morning of the fire and fell asleep while the food was cooking. The tenant woke up later on, but it was already too late: the fire was already out of control and has affected neighboring apartment units.

The chief says though the building is not sprinklered, there was fire alarm; the fire investigators were not sure however if the fire alarm was working properly. There was a firewall and this prevented the blaze from affecting the other units; several units were water damaged in the mishap. Twenty apartment units were affected and 10 of them have been destroyed.

Chris Osborn of Red Cross says the families affected by the fire will receive assistance. Many of those families – around 12 families – have already been relocated within the Beaconhouse apartments. Some of the affected units were, fortunately, unoccupied. Those who were already rehoused have pledged to help contact the remaining affected families.

Though nothing good can be said about the death of the mother and her two children, a bit of silver lining can still be had. A third child, an infant, was staying with the dad when the fire happened.