16 residents displaced after fire breaks out in Kansas City apartment building

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Kansas City Fire Department responded to a fire Tuesday morning that displaced multiple residents.

KCFD was dispatched to an apartment building in the 1000 block of East 9th Street in the Paseo West neighborhood. at 6 a.m. on Nov. 12 and reported seeing smoke and fire on the second floor.

KCATA sent a bus to keep the residents warm and Red Cross was ordered for 16 people who have been displaced.

Displaced residents told KCTV5 that the fire started on the top floor. They said they woke up to the smell of fire and smoke everywhere.

They said this isn’t the first time that this has happened, and some believe a group of homeless people could be behind this.

“A couple of weeks ago the residents had to go put a fire out downstairs because they had broke in and kicked them out then. But they just come in free-willingly and break the locks and hibernate for the night or a couple of days,” a displaced resident said. “It’s sad. It’s the holidays. There’s a lot going on right now it’s real depressing.”

The building was deemed unsafe a few weeks ago, residents said, and they were working to find new homes before this fire happened, forcing everyone out.

The extent of the damage is unclear, but the structure was added to the city’s dangerous buildings list.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

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