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Woman Leaps From 3rd Floor Balcony To Escape Berkeley Apartment Fire

BERKELEY (CBS SF) -- Two women escaped from a fire in a Berkeley apartment building Saturday morning, a deputy fire chief said.

Shortly after 9 a.m., firefighters received a report of a blaze in an apartment building in the 3100 block of King Street, about three blocks west of the Ashby BART station, Berkeley fire Deputy Chief Avery Webb said.

Reports of people trapped on the top floor of a three-story building, prompted a two-alarm response, Webb said.

Berkeley police officers were the first to respond to the building, consisting of two residential floors containing four to five units with a carport on the ground level.

Officers opened the main door of the unit and saw a fire in the hallway, Webb said.

Firefighters arrived at the scene shortly after police and extinguished the blaze.

Paramedics transported a woman, who appeared to have jumped from the third floor unit, to the hospital, Webb said.

According to Webb, the woman was reportedly seen on the balcony of the unit, yelling for help before police and fire officials arrived.

Branches of a tree outside the balcony were broken and it appears that the woman attempted to jump from the third floor to a nearby tree, but fell to the ground.

She suffered injuries during the fall, Webb said.

Firefighters entered the apartment where they located a second woman at the balcony. She was taken from the building via the main entrance by firefighters. She was examined by paramedics and released at the scene.

The blaze in the hallway was quickly extinguished and did not spread to the structure, Webb said.

The bedroom and other areas of the apartment sustained smoke damage. To ensure the fire was fully extinguished, firefighters cleared away a part of the wall covering a wall heater in the hallway, Webb said.

A preliminary investigation revealed that the fire appears to be accidental but the cause remains under investigation, according to Webb.

© Copyright 2014 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

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