Fire displaces dozens at senior village in Johnston. It was easily avoidable.

JOHNSTON − A fire in a Johnston senior housing complex displaced 52 people on Sunday afternoon, sent three to the hospital for smoke inhalation and left one cat missing.

The fire at Simmons Village started with a cigarette discarded in mulch beneath a bench, engulfed the bench and quickly climbed the side of the three-story apartment building around 3 p.m. Sunday, Johnston Fire Marshal Thomas Marcello said.

Three people were sent to an area hospital for smoke inhalation, and one firefighter was treated at the scene for heat exhaustion.

The building, with a charred façade, looked a little worse than it actually was because the fire started on the outside of the building. Firefighters knocked down the fire in 20 to 25 minutes, Marcello said. Six housing units were heavily damaged, he said.

Most of the 52 displaced residents are staying with family members or friends while the management company for Simmons Village, Picerne Real Estate Group, is finding places to put the remaining nine to 10 people, Red Cross Senior Director of Disaster Cycle Services Jamie Lynch said.

Simmons Village on its website is described as "federally subsidized housing for elderly/disabled households."

Donna Jolly, who lives in the building across the street, said she and many other residents called 911, and the dispatcher thought it was a brush fire.

"I said, 'no, it's a whole building,'" she said.

Jolly said she saw the fire start consuming the bench, then climb the side of the building.

"It went up fast," she said. "So very fast."

52 people, and lots of pets, are displaced

Half of the units in the building on the side opposite the fire will probably be habitable within one to two weeks while crews try to restore power to the half of the building that was lightly damaged, Marcello said.

On Monday, maintenance crews cleared the hallways and firefighters were able to escort residents into most of the units to get their personal belongings.

One cat, identified as "Creamsicle," appears to still be missing following the fire. At least two other cats were found safe following the fire.

"A lot of animals were walking around here yesterday," Marcello said.

When firefighters arrived, residents were already streaming out of the building while some of those on the third floor called 911 because they were stranded. Firefighters escorted, or carried, those people out of the building, Marcello said.

Residents were either not home or were generally awake when the fire started. If it had been in the middle of the night, the outcome could have been drastically worse, Marcelo said.

Low humidity, high temperatures a recipe for fire

The fire at Simmons Village comes after multiple large fires already this year in Rhode Island.

An April 14 fire in Exeter burned 350 acres of woodland, the largest since a 1942 fire burned 24,500 acres. Another blaze, on April 13, burned 200 acres in the Big River Management Area in West Greenwich.

April 14, 2023 fire: Fueled by dead trees, Exeter wildfire in Queen's River Preserve was largest in RI since 1942

The original 911 call about Simmons Village came in as a brush fire, but as crews drove toward the scene, they saw heavy black smoke and knew it was something more.

Video taken by bystanders shows the fire engulfing the bench and the side of the building.

"This should have never happened," Marcello said.

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Reach reporter Wheeler Cowperthwaite at wcowperthwaite@providencejournal.com or follow him on Twitter @WheelerReporter.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Fire at Johnston senior housing leaves 52 without homes, 3 injured