Shelter opened to house some residents forced out by blaze at Glenwood Towers

Garner United Methodist Church, at 201 Methodist Drive in Garner, opened Friday night for those forced out of their home because of the three-alarm fire.

The cause of the blaze remained under investigation Saturday after at least six people were taken to an area hospital while more than 100 others needed to be evaluated after the three-alarm fire was reported at the high-rise apartment complex on Glenwood Avenue.

Flames and smoke were visible from the complex, which caters to senior citizens, after the fire was reported around 1 p.m.

Jeff Hammerstein with Wake EMS told WRAL News that several people had complained about smoke inhalation.

Hammerstein said everyone from the eighth floor of the tower and up were safely removed from the building, but by 4:40 p.m., most residents were allowed back inside. Those residents who live on the ninth floor were not allowed back into their homes.

The Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at the Garner United Methodist Church at 7 p.m. Friday. At least 17 people were registered at the shelter.

The fire was reported in a unit in a tower that is primarily home to residents 50 years old and up. The building is a public housing complex operated by the Raleigh Housing Authority. According to the agency, Glenwood Towers receives rental subsidies through HUD-Assisted Housing for some or all of its apartments.

There are 287 apartments in the tower, and only 10 of those are vacant. Twenty-eight units were damaged in the blaze.

According to a fire incident report, 100 firefighters helped to bring the flames under control, and about 25 percent of the building was damaged.

Terry Stephens, who was visiting friends on the ninth floor, helped residents to safety.

"I didn't know what to do," she said. "There was so much smoke I couldn't see nothing, but we grabbed each other," she said.

No one believed her when she first started yelling about the fire, she said.

"It wasn't until they saw me crying and hollering, and then everyone started running out," she said. "I saved lives today, and that was a blessing. God sent me up there for a reason."

Ray Mallory, who lives in the building, said he and his girlfriend also went knocking on doors to tell people to get out.

He said false alarms happen a lot, so at first people were slow to move. But he told them, "There really is a fire. This isn't a joke."

"It's good this happened during the day and not at night," Mallory said. "It could have been a lot worse."

Some residents had to be rescued, brought out in stretchers and loaded into a caravan of ambulances on standby. Many of those who got out on their own took shelter in a nearby community center for three hours.

They then waited their turn for buses to shuttle them back to the building, floor by floor.

This is the second fire that has been reported in a residential building in the Glenwood South area.

The fire that started at the construction site of the Metropolitan Apartments on the evening of March 16, 2017 was a half-mile from the fire on Friday.

Residents may have to wait another year to return to building damaged by Raleigh fire

In that incident, the fire burned through the night, toppling a construction crane and shooting flames 200 feet in the air. The Quorum and nearby Link Apartments sustained extensive damage.

While it was the biggest fire in 90 years in Raleigh, the cause was never determined.