By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – Fire officials say a working smoke alarm may have saved lives following an early-morning apartment fire.

Fire crews called to an building in the 1400 block of Croxton Avenue shortly after 5 a.m. for a report of fire. Bloomington Fire Department Public Information Officer Stuart Blade said a caller to 911 reported all seven residents were out of the six-unit apartment building before fire crews arrived.

“That means we can just go in and focus

“(Firefighers) are still going to go in and do one of those primary searches and make sure everyone is out, but that’s just a sigh of relief for our firefighters to know everyone is out of the building and then give them that opportunity to go in and put the fire out,” Blade said.

Blade said the fire could have had a different ending were it not for a working smoke alarm.

“The majority of fires occur in the home and then over half of those occur in the time where we are sleeping,” Blade said. “This is really one of those moments when we can just thank our working smoke alarms.”

Firefighters had the blaze out in about 30 minutes. No one was injured.

The blaze caused about $50,000 in damages. The cause is still under investigation.

The American Red Cross is offering housing and other assistance to the displaced residents.

BFD plans to install smoke alarms in the community on May 5 in conjunction with the Red Cross. You can sign up at www.getasmokealarm.org.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].