Fire chief: Merrillville apartment fire displaces 36 families

A giant fire that ripped through an apartment building early Saturday afternoon produced no injuries or fatalities but did displace 36 families, Merrillville Fire Chief Ed Yerga said Sunday.

Merrillville firefighters were sent to the 1800 block of W. 86th Avenue in the Evergreen Luxury Apartments for an apartment fire, Yerga said in a release. Mutual aid units that arrived first were met with heavy black smoke, he said.

After the first Merrillville rig arrived to “heavy fire conditions in the roof of a three-story apartment building,” crews swept the building to make sure all residents had gotten out, Yerga said. While firefighters were able to get the fire under control within an hour or so, they’d switched to defensive operations because of the wind and heavy fire, he said.

Davida Ada