A two alarm fire broke out at the City Center Apartments on 4th Avenue in downtown Sunday evening.
The fire started about 9:20 pm on the first floor and quickly spread to the top floor of the two-story building.
Daniel Viets was asleep when the fire started. " I woke up to my room full of smoke. I didn’t know what was going on and I was choking...People were like there’s somebody up there in that room and I broke out my screen and they rescued me out the window."
Another man jumped from his second story window after smoke had filled his apartment. Timothy Morlan who lives in a nearby building spotted his neighbor.
“I said just hang out the window and we’ll catch you," Morlen told NBC7. "Three of us stood down there and he just dropped down and...one of the guys got the blunt of the fall, thank god, and nobody was hurt."
Crews say 14 people have been displaced and four people are injured.
As of 9:43 pm crews had put out the fire. There are several more smoke inhalation victims, and medics have set up a casualty collection point in case there are more burn victims.
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One person who jumped out of a window has been taken to the UCSD Burn Center.
SDG&E and fire investigators headed to the scene to determine the source. The fire is believed to have been started in one apartment, although the cause is still not known.
The building was fully evacuated after the fire, and roads nearby the complex have been blocked off by fire crews. Officials expect the area to be clear within the hour.
Check back on this breaking story for updates.
