'Organized Chaos:' Apartment Fire Injures Four, Displaces 150

Tony Bershow saw a flame lap around the balcony of his third floor apartment around 12:45 a.m. last night and his mind went into high gear.

"The flames were quick," Bershow said. "I grabbed the kids and wife and told them to get outside."

He hadn't heard alarms or sirens yet, but when he knocked on his invalid neighbor's door across the hallway the smoke was quickly becoming waist deep.

"The neighbor, he just had a stroke last year, so I wanted to warn him," Bershow said. "They didn't know there was a fire until I knocked and they found themselves in smoke waist high."

Standing outside the devastated building at 12055 41st Avenue at the Parkside Apartments in Plymouth, many residents were still in shock, hours later. Four firefighters were injured and one civilian, but none had life threatening injuries. The cause and origin of the fire remains under investigation.

"I was up to get a snack when I heard the alarms, but I thought it was a false alarm until I heard people in the hallway," said resident Jeremy Skuyn. "Then I smelled smoke and took the kids and dogs with my wife and just as we got outside we saw the smoke roll out the roof and a huge burst of flames."

Visit the Plymouth Patch site to read the rest of this dramatic story.