1 family displaced in Northeast Fresno apartment fire

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Investigators are trying to figure out what sparked an overnight apartment fire in Northeast Fresno.

Firefighters were called around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning to the complex on Roberts Avenue near Cedar Avenue. When they arrived they found the apartment full of flames and heavy smoke. A mother and child were able to escape through a back window.

Fire officials says they were lucky to get out when they did. "There's a lot of charring and all the paint is blistered in the front area of the apartment, so that shows there was at one time a very intense heat, in what we call a 'flashover.' Fortunately the family was out just in the nick of time before that did flashover, because that would be, almost, you wouldn't be able to escape that at that point," said Batt. Chief Casey Clark, Fresno Fire Department.

All the other families in the complex were able to return to their homes. The Red Cross is now helping the family displaced by the fire.