Four people sent to hospital after apartment fire

An elderly woman and her two daughters lived in the unit where the fire started.

"I hear this screaming and I opened my back door and walked out, and the first thing I could see was smoke,” witness Gina Garrett said.

Nicole Curtis, 23, was trapped inside the apartment, according to a witness.

"The smoke had got to her and she wasn’t responding to the paramedics or the firefighters, and they took her off in the ambulance,” witness Eddie Griffith said.

Paramedics took Curtis and the two other women to WakeMed for treatment. They were released Monday from the hospital.

A man who tried to help the family suffered smoke inhalation, and an ambulance took him to a hospital as a precaution. A firefighter was also treated, but not hospitalized, for smoke inhalation.

The names and conditions of some of the victims were not available.

Three apartments were damaged by the blaze, including Patty Patterson's unit.

“You leave home and then you come back and you don’t have a home,” Patterson said.

Police said an incense candle, burning near a plastic plant, may have caused the fire.

The Red Cross was helping the displaced families find temporary housing.