Overheated remote-control car battery sparked massive apartment blaze
BATON ROUGE – First responders knocked on doors and kicked some in in an effort to evacuate residents of a burning apartment building Monday evening.
The Christmas night blaze burned through one building and jumped to part of a second just after nine o'clock. Almost immediately, firefighters began requesting for more fire crews.
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The fire quickly burned through units at Jefferson Shadows Apartments in the 9700 block of Jefferson Highway near Bluebonnet.
It took firefighters less than 30-minutes to get the fire under control.
A man collapsed as he watched his unit burn, WBRZ reporter Bess Casserleigh reported in multiple live news segments from the scene during the 10 o'clock news on channel 2.
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Roughly two-dozen units were impacted by the blaze. There were no reported injuries.
Fire investigators blamed the blaze on an overheated remote-control car charging on a bed. The fire spread from the room, into the attic.
St. George Fire officials said the toy was a "Traxxas" brand remote-control car. The charger was for a 7.4 volt lithium battery.
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