Apartment Blaze Leaves 30 Homeless

A fire that may have been started by a soldering iron gutted one apartment and severely damaged several others, forcing 30 people to flee the building, fire officials said Thursday.

No one was injured in the Wednesday night fire at 13402 Laurel St., but residents were forced to stay in a motel while they looked for temporary housing, authorities said.

A worker had been soldering in a bathroom wall earlier that day, fire investigators said. Some of the pipes heated during the soldering appeared to have caused wood beams in the wall to smolder and eventually catch fire, said Ed Lukas of the Fire Department.

The 9:30 p.m. fire caused about $150,000 damage to the building, officials said. When firefighters arrived, one apartment in the complex was destroyed and flames had spread to four other apartments, Lukas said.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze in about half an hour.