DALLAS — A woman was severely burned and her son was injured while trying to escape a fire at an apartment in southeast Dallas early Thursday, officials said.
A man who was also burned in the fire admitted to setting the fire, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue officials.
The fire happened at the Villas of Sorrento apartments in the 3100 block of Stag Road, near South Great Trinity Forest Way and Bonnie View Road.
Neighbors at the Villa Sorento Apartments on Stag Road said they woke up to the sound of an explosion, heavy smoke, intense heat, and fire.
“Everything was just burning. Literally,” neighbor Adayrius Dixon explained.
Dixon is among the tenants who woke up to the flames. He said he leaped to safety before rushing back to his second-floor apartment to help his family members escape.
Firefighters found the fire coming from a second-floor apartment. Crews learned that a woman inside the apartment suffered life-threatening burns and that her son was injured while escaping a second-floor window, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue.
Both the woman and her son were taken to a hospital for treatment. The man that allegedly admitted to setting the fire went to a hospital for burn treatment in a private vehicle, officials said.
“I just looked, I just seen fire and in jumped out the window,” Dixon said.
“When I seen her, she was coming down the stairs on fire,” neighbor Tiashmon Clark explained.
One building was impacted by the fire. Two units on a top floor and two units on a bottom floor were damaged.
One man spoke to WFAA saying he just arrived to the scene when he saw the woman on fire coming out of the building.
"I look up and I seen the lady come running out the building on fire, my first instinct was to pull over, get out of my truck and help her," said Clark, a witness. "She got on the grass over here and started rolling. I pulled my sweater off and started putting it out with my sweater."
Clark was driving home when he saw the woman running from the burning building and screaming for help. The former Marine said he immediately stopped to help.
Now, the homes of four families are destroyed. Three people are injured. The Red Cross is assisting some of the families.
Crews began cleaning up the debris on Thursday afternoon.
Investigators said they’ll continue looking into this case of arson.
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