1 person killed, 7 others injured in Upper Darby building fire, officials say

One person was killed and seven others injured, with one person in critical condition, following an apartment building fire in Upper Darby Township’s Drexel Hill neighborhood on Saturday morning, officials said.

The second-alarm fire broke out just before 11 a.m. on Saturday morning, with firefighters arriving at the scene on the 3200 block of Township Line Road to find an ongoing blaze that started on the second floor, Martin said.

A firefighter was also taken to the hospital with burn injuries, but has since been released and is expected to recover, officials said

Besides the person who remains in critical condition, the others injured are dealing with non-life threatening conditions, officials said.

All three floors of the building sustained damage due to the fire breaking out on the second floor, officials said. The third floor sustained smoke damage and the first floor sustained water damage.

Around 75 people in total are displaced due to the fire, officials said. The Salvation Army was assisting people in their attempt to find temporary shelter.

NBC10 spoke with Raymond Erwin, who was rescued by firefighters. Erwin said he, his girlfriend, their dog and a few neighbors and kids were desperately trying to escape from the second floor, but couldn’t see through the thick smoke.

“That point we were all kind of panicking, and we just ran back to one of our neighbors apartments,” Erwin said. “We closed the door and we went to the deck from there. We just kind of waited to see how they were going to extract us out of here and get us down with the ladders.”

“Honestly, I’m still trying to process it. This is definitely one of the first times I’ve ever been in a situation like this, so it’s definitely very scary,” Erwin added.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

This is a developing story; check back for more updates here as well as on our 6 p.m. newscast.