Elderly residents flee burning building

WEST BLOOMFIELD, Michigan (CNN) -- Lillian Wolfson shuffles slowly, holding on to her walker, as smoke still flutters in the distance from the apartment building she evacuated Wednesday morning.

"It was frustrating," the 92-year-old recalled. "I was was getting on dirty clothes, dirty underwear, dirty everything. I was not dressed. We made the best of it."

Wolfson and more than 200 other residents of the Hechtman Jewish Apartments in West Bloomfield fled their homes shortly after 10 a.m. as smoke filled the apartment complex.

"It was very traumatic, chaotic, stressful," Wolfson said.

West Bloomfield's six fire stations were joined by firefighters from seven nearby towns in responding to the blaze that started in a third-floor boiler room, West Bloomfield Fire Capt. Joe Slawek said.

Firefighters evacuated most residents through the stairwells, but 10 to 12 seniors were trapped on balconies, Slawek said.

Firefighters placed ladders on the ground for the rescue operation. Watch firefighters carry residents to safety »

"They were literally carried down by firefighters because of smoke in the third-floor hallways," Slawek said. "They could not enter the hallways."

Four residents were taken to hospitals because of smoke inhalation.

The average age of residents in the Hechtman apartment complex is 89, and some are older than 100, according to Jewish Apartments and Services, which operates the facility.

"It was frightening," said Fay Eisenberg, 84. "People came with their bathrobes, their nightgowns. I didn't recognize them. I didn't look so good either. We ran like heck. We had to run out of there with nothing."

Family members arrived in the afternoon to pick up elderly relatives. Seventeen residents planned to spend the night at Fountains of Franklin, a nearby senior living facility.

The firemen were "super-fast. They were incredible, absolutely unbelievable," said Marsha Goldsmith Kamin, executive director of Jewish Apartments and Services. E-mail to a friend