By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

An electrical fire at Berkshire Manor Apartments displaced 12 residents on Sunday night. No injuries were reported.

Carrboro firefighters responded to the fire at the apartments, located on NC 54 Bypass, at 9:15 p.m. and found smoke coming from the roof of building G of the complex and a large fire in apartment G-5.

“It didn’t have a terribly good head start on us,” said Trey Mayo, Deputy Chief for the Carrboro Fire Department.

Seventeen firefighters from Carrboro, Chapel Hill and North Chatham fire departments brought the fire under control in less than 10 minutes. Firefighters determined that an electrical short in the kitchen of apartment G-5 started the fire.

According to Mayo, most of the damage was due to smoke and water and was contained to the apartment in which the fire started and the apartment below it.

Residents of two adjacent apartments also were displaced for the night because firefighters shut off the power on that end of the building. After power is turned off, residents can’t turn it back on until the fire has been investigated.