 He also calls on infrastructure repair costs that are passed on to customers to be reexamined. Mike Murillo, WTOP News. 6.05, an update to that big apartment building fire. It took more than 100 firefighters to put out in southeast D.C. yesterday. This evening, we're learning what caused the fire. D.C. Fire and EMS tells WTOP it started when young people were playing with fireworks. They went off on a second-story balcony.