No injuries in apartment fire or explosion at vacant house

Omaha firefighters were busy Friday morning battling an apartment fire in north Omaha and an explosion at a South Omaha house.

Neither resulted in injuries.

Six family members were inside apartment No. 27 at the Yale Park complex near 34th Avenue and Erskine Street when fish on a grill ignited a fire about 9 a.m. A resident, speaking through an interpreter, said the flames from the grill climbed an exterior wall.

"They were cooking fish on a (charcoal) grill out back,'' said neighbor and interpreter Hsar Lah, 25. "They went inside and then looked out back and saw the fire.''

Lah said the family, refugees from Myanmar in southeast Asia, escaped unharmed.

Firefighters reported heavy smoke and flames upon arrival but were able to contain the blaze before it spread to other units.


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