ROCHESTER, N.Y. — One person died in a fire Friday morning at an apartment building off of Chili Avenue near Thurston Road. Seven others were helped out of the building. Firefighters got the call around 3 a.m.

Nesha Anderson, who lives on the second floor of the apartment building, said she knew the victim who died this morning in the fire.


What You Need To Know

  • One victim died in an apartment fire in Rochester Friday morning

  • The fire was contained within the apartment where it originated

  • Firefighters and residents said the building was engulfed in smoke

"She was an older woman, she was nice to the neighborhood,” said Anderson.

Firefighters arrived within five minutes of the 911 call and said they were met with heavy smoke on the first floor.

"Once they got into the structure itself they were met with very very low visibility, high heat, and it was almost untenable. So that was difficult in itself," said Lieutenant Ryan Fleming, public information officer for the Rochester Fire Department.

Anderson said the victim lived with her husband.

"He went back inside to go get her, but he came back out,” said Anderson. “So he's okay. They took him to the hospital because he's distraught because she didn't make it."

Anderson described the horrifying moments when she realized there was a fire in the building.

"I woke up because I smelled the smoke,” said Anderson. “I thought it was coming from my apartment. So I'm looking around. I laid back down. I laid back down and then something told me to get up. The alarm started to go off. So I opened the door, and it was just a big gush of black smoke. Coming rapidly, too."

She was able to get out safely. Firefighters who were on the scene in five minutes after that call helped seven other people get out of the 12 unit apartment building. One of them had to be saved by a ladder from his apartment because the smoke was too thick for him to get out.

Lieutenant Fleming said that smoke was a challenge for firefighters.

However, they were there fast enough to contain the fire to the one apartment where it started on the bottom floor.

An RTS bus came so that people who lived in the apartment building had somewhere to wait until they figured out where to go next.

The Red Cross will help residents with housing until it is safe to enter the building again.

"Very frightening,” said Anderson. “None of my family is out here so I really have nowhere to go. I'm going to have to go to a hotel."

The landlord of the apartment building said he did not know about the fire until he pulled up to the apartment later in the morning. He said he just spoke to the victim Thursday and when he found out the news he was heartbroken. He said she was one of his best tenants.

Fleming said the actions of the firefighters who responded were nothing short of heroic.

Firefighters are still investigating what started the fire originally.