Woman leaps from 3rd-floor apartment window of burning Brooklyn Park complex

A fire inside a large apartment complex early Tuesday in Brooklyn Park injured several people and sent one resident leaping from the fire behind her in a third-floor unit, authorities said.

The blaze broke out about 1 a.m. at the Huntington Place Apartments, at 73rd and Zane Avenues N., said Fire Batallion Chief Dan Smith.

The woman who jumped from a window of the unit that was burning was taken to North Memorial Medical Center, and her condition was not immediately known, Smith said.

Deputy Fire Chief Todd Seitz said it's hard to second guess the woman's decision to leap from such a perilous height.

"It was probably her only option," given that the fire was in her unit, Seitz said.

Witnesses reported seeing the woman jump head-first and landed on her head, Seitz added. He said leaping feet-first "is the way I would do it."

Five others were treated for smoke inhalation and released at the scene, he said.

Many of the displaced residents were being helped by the Red Cross with their essential needs.

Smith said the fire was pretty much contained to the one apartment and was quickly knocked down. Authorities say it's too soon to say how the blaze began.

The complex has smoke detectors but no sprinkler system, Smith said. That falls within requirements, given that this is not a newer building, he said. The scene was much the same two years ago, when a late-night fire erupted at the same apartment complex in April 2014. As the woman did this time around, some residents jumped from third-floor windows to avoid the flames. The blaze was determined to be a case of arson.