Stockton apartment fire leaves 4 injured, 15 displaced

STOCKTON — Four people were hospitalized and more than a dozen people were displaced after a Stockton apartment caught fire, officials said Thursday.

The Stockton Fire Department said firefighters responded just before 4:30 a.m. at the Village North Apartments along West Benjamin Holt Drive.

A second-story unit was heavily involved in flames when first responders arrived.

Among the four injured was a child. The fire department said all four suffered significant burn injuries. A cat died in the fire.

Though the flames were contained to one unit, several other units sustained water and smoke damage. Red Cross was assisting 15 people who were displaced.

One of those who were displaced was Lincoln Sinclair.

"We're going to come back in the morning and see what we can salvage and go from there," he said.

Sinclair is a truck driver and was out on delivery when he got the call from his family.

"I dropped everything, of course," he said. "It's family, and I got here."

It was his daughter, Kellie, who alerted her family to get out after she heard screams and smelled the smoke.

"I was so panicked," she said. "I was panicked because I didn't know what to bring."

Kellie and her brother and sisters watched as their apartment building went up in flames.

For Lincoln Sinclair, he's now praying for his neighbors in the hospital and is grateful his family is OK.

"The fire was all the way around them and we live on the top floor," he said. "People would have to jump to safety. Thank God that didn't happen."

The cause of the fire is not yet known.