Status of residents of Apache Junction home that went up in flames remains unknown
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz. - The status of two residents of an Apache Junction home that went up in flames Saturday night is still unknown.
The fully engulfed house fire in Apache Junction required a response from Apache Junction Police, Superstition Fire Department and the Mesa Fire Department on Saturday night.
The fire forced the closure of Goldfield Road between 13th Avenue and Broadway Road. It reopened around 8:45 p.m. on March 30. The location was about a mile north of U.S. 60.
With high winds in the area, homes to the north of the structure were evacuated as a progressive safety measure.
The aftermath of the flames
A home was nearly leveled and burned to the ground.
There is very limited information surrounding this fire, but neighbors say an elderly couple lived in the home. We do not know their status as of Sunday night.
Given Saturday night's roaring winds and the size of the flames, neighbors say they're thankful more damage wasn’t done to the surrounding area.
Janet Bushnell has lived in her home for 42 years. She says the typically quiet Apache Junction community became chaos.
At around 6 p.m., her dog's concerned barking drew her outside, and when she saw the flames. Her natural instinct was to help.
"I grabbed my hose and ran over here because I saw the flames right there at the edge, they were just coming out and coming over the roof," she said.
Bushnell says her neighbors were barbequing when the fire broke out. With high wind gusts, the fire quickly grew and traveled.
"They (the flames) came over here. They caught that part of my fence, and I was worried that was it. You know, I wanted to save my home, but if I had to leave, I had to leave," Bushnell said.
That’s when residents, like the Bushnells, were evacuated. She says crews worked well into the night, as it seemed the fire just continued to ignite.
"I kept hearing popping, popping, you know, big like explosion type things," she said.
Sounds Bushnell says weren’t those of a fire.
"Come to find out, it was bullets and guns. I found a bullet over here by my washroom door. And I'd come out and there'd be a whole big new fire going on," she said.
On Sunday, crime scene tape remained surrounding that property. There were several other sheds on the property that survived the fire.
For now, we're waiting for the authorities to update us on information about the residents of the burned home.
No further information was provided.