WASHINGTON - There's a call for answers in Northwest D.C. Wednesday night, just days after a fire on Harvard Street ripped through an apartment building.

An alarming problem has residents of a large D.C. apartment building on edge. A fire started in a Northwest building overnight Sunday, but not everyone knew about the fire right away.

Overnight Sunday, hundreds of Harvard Hall apartment residents scrambled to escape their building. "It was very hectic and very scary," said one tenant.

Fire officials say a blaze in a fourth floor unit that critically injured one resident and burned another quickly filled hallways with smoke.

Tenant Sean Mersereau says firefighters hustled to quickly evacuate tenants."The fire department was great," he said.

The problem, according to a number of residents, is that they never heard a building-wide alarm. "I said the alarms are not going off in the back of the building and he said start banging on doors," said Lauryn Beer, a tenant.

"It was strange because there wasn't really an alert...," added Jazelle Hunt, a tenant.

The property manager told ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 the reason the fire alarm didn't go off is because the building's smoke detectors are not connected to the building's fire alarm system.

They also said that all tenants have been informed that the only way to activate the fire alarm system is by someone physically pulling down a switch.

In a letter distributed Monday to residents, the property manager said: "All residents should be aware that the building fire alarm operates by the pull stations located in... hallways, and... this alarm is separate from the smoke alarms in your... apartments. in the event of a fire, you should locate the pull station nearest you and activate the building alarm."

Management also says due to the age of the building they are not required to have a modern alarm system.

Many residents there say they were not aware of the system and fear that if the fire had spread, many more tenants could have been injured.

The councilman for the area, Jim Graham, says he is very concerned and understands this is a serious problem in the District.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

 Email To Friend