Two people are hurt and 16 are displaced after a fire early Monday at a Northeast D.C. home for people recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.
Amid thick smoke, firefighters pulled three people out of the house in the 3100 block of 16th Street NE. Smoke alarms gave the majority of residents time to escape on their own, D.C. fire department spokesman Vito Maggiolo said.
"Lives were definitely at risk. You had an advanced fire in the cellar, threatening to spread rapidly and threatening to fill the house with toxic smoke," he said.
At about 8:49 a.m., someone reported that there was a fire and people were trapped.
When firefighters arrived, they found that a number of people had evacuated. Inside, they helped three people escape. Two people were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. A third person refused medical treatment.
The fire was confined to the basement of the two-story house, Maggiolo said. Its cause is under investigation.
The Red Cross and the D.C. mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services are assisting displaced residents, just two days before Christmas.
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The residence is part of the Oxford House network dedicated to "self-help for sobriety without relapse."
Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.
