Fire Devstates Amity Apartment Building

It took firefighters an hour and a half to get the blaze under control.

Photo and video: Jerry Freeman for Salem-News.com

(AMITY, Ore.) - An apartment fire in Amity Friday night led to the total destruction of a building that has long been a part of this rural town in the Mid-Willamette Valley between Salem and McMinnville.

Local resident Paul Hendrix says a number of people live in the multi-level apartment building but luckily there were no injuries.

What ended up as a three-alarm fire, destroyed a building containing both apartments and businesses, a spokesperson with the Amity Fire Department told reporters.

The blaze is said to have broken out some time after 4:30 p.m.

Eric McMullen, with the Amity Fire Department, told Portland TV station KATU the building at 312 S. Trade Street contained six apartment units and three businesses and was a complete loss. The fire displaced 10 peopled.

It took firefighters an hour and a half to get the blaze under control, and crews on the ground said they still had many hours to go before the scene would be clear.

Jerry Freeman is part of a new generation of dedicated news photographers who are entering the Internet news industry as a second career. He shares in common with many people the dream of becoming a visual journalist. Joining the Navy at an early age, and the Oregon Army Guard a few years later, Jerry has a wide range of life experiences. He describes himself as “an old truck driver with a new found passion to bare witness on the world’s events.” Teaming up with Salem-News.com he embarks on a new career as a video news photographer and reporter. Stay tuned, and see how it turns out. Jerry seems to exhibit natural talent and is already becoming a published member of the Salem-News.com team. You can send Jerry Freeman an email at this address: bearingwitness@live.com