A fire destroyed three homes and damaged two others on South Wickens Street on Monday, September 21st.  According to fire department officials, everyone in all five homes evacuated safely and no one was injured. The fire started inside of Sabrina Roundtree’s home in the middle of the day and quickly spread to two homes next door. Roundtree says she was working on an art project upstairs when she heard a rumbling sound followed by a dripping noise. She thought the noise was due to a plumbing issue or washing machine malfuntion but as the rumbling grew louder, she realized it was something more serious. Roundtree got up to investigate and saw what she thought was water pouring out the side of her house. As she walked downstairs the rumbling got worse. “I thought it was a sinkhole or something outside or an earthquake,” Roundtree said.

         Upon exiting the house, she saw that her entire upstairs was engulfed in flames except for the room she’d been working in. Roundtree says she never smelled smoke and her home’s smoke detectors never went off.   Roundtree said the fire quickly spread from house to house and that she heard and saw multiple explosions. Roundtree says her husband had run an errand and came home to discover the homes engulfed in flames.

Dozens of neighbors watched as the fire department fought to put out the flames and many were comforting those who had lost their homes. Doris Weeks was walking around the neighborhood when she smelled smoke and saw fire trucks arrive.“I know the people here are good people and we will come together to see what we can do to help.” Weeks was heartbroken over the immense loss but made sure to thank all of the firefighters for coming out and helping to prevent the fire from spreading even more and salvage what they could. The fire department has yet to discover the cause of the fire, but they are still investigating. Jason Allen is the Public Information Officer for the Bloomington Fire Department.