Two air conditioning units exploded at the Carbondale Towers about 4 p.m. Saturday, damaging parts of the fourth and fifth floors. No injuries have been reported.

Assistant Fire Chief Ted Lomax of the Carbondale Fire Department said two apartments on the fourth floor were damaged, one extensively, and the fifth floor was slightly damaged. He said 20 firefighters were on the scene from three fire departments in the area.

“I’m not really sure how many residents were displaced,” Lomax said.

Advertisement

David Kulig, a resident from the sixth floor, said he heard the smoke alarms go off, but not the fire alarms. He said fire trucks were on the scene roughly five minutes after the alarm sounded.

“Normally that fire alarm will go off at the slightest thing, like if someone burns their food,” Kulig said. “For some reason the fire didn’t go off at all when the fire happened.”

Kulig said the first air conditioning unit on the fourth floor caught fire, and then as it burst the unit on the fifth floor caught fire.

Residents said two people were taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

Macy McClendon, the resident of the damaged room on the fifth floor, who has lived at the towers for two months, said she was outside during the incident.

“I know a lot of people are shaken up right now,” McClendon said. “More shaken up than the people whose rooms actually burned.”

McClendon said she does not know the condition of her cat, which was in the room when the units burst.

Advertisement*

This story will be updated as more information becomes available.

Marissa Novel can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @marissanovelDE or at 536-3311 ext. 268.