PHOTO/VIDEO: At 12:39 Thursday afternoon, a call for smoke coming from a bathroom vent in apartment 31 of building E at Gillmore Village in South Utica.
The fire quickly grew.
Several factors had firefighters at a disadvantage.
"Due to several roofs being on the second floor, or, several sections of ceiling... had a lot of work to do to try to get access to the fire," said Utica Fire Chief Scott Ingersoll. "Above that ceiling section, the roofline is all wood trusses, and when the fire got into that space, it was unvented, so it just grew exponentially in a short amount of time."
Then, there were water problems.
"One of the other issues that we're dealing with-it's a very small water main that feeds this whole complex back here, and we do not have enough water pressure, so we could only use three to four hand lines at a time," said the Chief.