Mother and son help neighbors escape Wentzville apartment fire

WENTZVILLE, Mo. — An intense overnight fire guts a Wentzville apartment building. This morning authorities are searching for a cause as residents try to cope with what’s happened.

It all happened at the Pineview Apartments on St. Charles Street. That is just off West Pearce Boulevard and not far from I-70. The fire did very heavy damage to one of the apartment buildings at the complex. Although a cause of the fire is still under investigation, authorities believe it started in the back of the building, where the worst destruction appeared to take place.

Fire crews got the first call for the fire just before 2:45 a.m. this morning. The fire quickly grew to two alarms…prompting a response from several different fire protection districts. There are eight units in the impacted building.

Fortunately, everybody was able to get out okay, and no injuries are being reported. In fact, we understand all of the residents were out when fire crews arrived.

That is in part because of the actions of Jason Huskey and his mom. They are residents in the building and once they got out safely they pounded on doors to get their neighbors out.

“It’s kind of a shock you know you just get woke up, you’re still trying to wake up at the time. And you see an emergency like that so you try to move as quick as possible,” said Jason.

Brett Fawcett is another resident in the building that burned. He and his dad make it out of their apartment okay.

Brett calls the whole experience terrifying.

“The smoke alarm started going off and we could see the smoke and we could smell it too just come in to our apartment. And the next thing I knew, we got a bang on our door- one of our neighbors said ‘you got to get out of the building it’s on fire!’ so I told my dad, hey we got to get out of here. So I put on my shorts, my shoes, I grabbed my phone and my wallet; and he put his boot on—we booked it, we had to,” explained Brett.

Assistant Chief Scott says at this point, authorities do not believe the fire is suspicious. Tragically, we understand that a dog and two cats perished in the blaze.

The property manager says they will put the displaced residents up in a hotel at least for the time being while everyone tries to plot a path forward.

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