Blaze displaces 2 couples

Todd Knoeppel with the Vancouver Fire Department works a two-alarm fire at a duplex on Boise Court on Thursday afternoon. (STEVEN LANE/The Columbian)

A man and a woman escaped from their flaming duplex apartments in Vancouver's McLoughlin Heights on Thursday afternoon — with their dogs — but both homes were destroyed.

At 3:11 p.m., members of the Vancouver Fire Department rushed to 4602 and 4604 Boise Court, just west of Martin Luther King Elementary School, said firefighter-spokesman Jim Flaherty.

They arrived to find the unit nearest the school in heavy flames, and a Nissan car burning in its driveway. Flames also had burned into the attic and spread into the adjoining unit.

Soon after arriving on the hot, dry afternoon, and needing to protect another duplex building only about 20 feet away, fire commanders called for a second alarm that sent about 45 fire department employees and several engines and ladder trucks to the scene.

"We threw most, if not all, of our resources into it," Flaherty said. "This was heavy fire conditions and an extreme workload on the firefighters."

He said the first crews "worked a solid 30 minutes-plus without relief. As they went through one air bottle, they'd just go out and get another one and go back in."

Julius Owolabi said he was in his apartment when he heard Melanie Little, who lives next door, yelling.

"I was hearing, 'Come out! Come out!'" he said. "I tried to get my cat and dog. The cat got away from me and went in the closet. I got the dog out."

Owolabi started moving his two cars from his driveway.

"By the time I got to the second one, it was already burning in the front."

Dena Rush, who lives across the street, said she heard Melanie Little yelling outside and ran outside to knock on Owolabi's door.

"It happened very fast, it exploded," Rush said. "There was so much chaos."

Rush said Melanie Little came into her apartment to use the phone.

Little's service dog, Tonka, didn't realize Little was outside, and wanted to go inside her burning apartment to find her.

"That dog would not leave until he could see his 'mom' was OK," Rush said. "That dog would have gone into the fire for her."

Finally, Little walked outside and Tonka ran to her side and stayed there.

Owolabi's girlfriend, Julie Young, arrived at the scene as her home was burning. As firefighters worked, she sat on Rush's front porch crying. As Rush comforted her, holding a wet cloth to her forehead, Young's tiny dog, Tome, sat by her feet.

"I work so hard," Young said. "Everything's gone, everything."

Scott Meyers and Pat Trent, who live in duplex units just to the west of the burning building, both had grabbed garden hoses to wet down the area between the buildings. They said flames were reaching 10 feet above the burning building's roof.

"We were like praying the firefighters would get here," as they used their hoses, Trent said. "We would have been next, yeah. Real close."

Firefighters soon arrived and prevented the fire from spreading to the duplex building Trent and Meyers live in.

"It being hot, we were afraid it would come over on this side of the street," said Nicole King, standing across from the burning building. "All this ground is all brown and dry."

Melanie Little was taken to a hospital to be checked, said her husband, Josh Little, 33, who arrived after the fire broke out.

His wife's mixed-breed dog, Tonka, white with head coloring like that of a border collie, is trained to give her emotional support and be alert in case she has a seizure, he said.

With his master at the hospital, Tonka lay in the shady grass near Josh Little, who said he had no renter's insurance.

Once the fire was under control, it stubbornly kept flaring in the attic and sending out flames and smoke puffs through the roof.

Firefighters using heavy pike poles and chain saws worked inside the apartments, pulling down large chunks of ceiling and causing yellow insulation to fall in piles so they could get water into the attic and douse all smoldering areas.

Firefighters who'd been relieved sat sweating in the shade of trees, resting and pouring water over their heads to cool off. They had their blood pressure checked, Flaherty said. A rehab bus arrived to provide coolness and places to rest.

"I have nothing but respect for those guys," Josh Little said. "It's incredible what they do."

Volunteers with the Southwest Washington chapter of the American Red Cross arrived with cold drinks, and to help the two displaced couples with temporary lodging.

The fire caused $140,000 in damages, and the cause is undetermined. The fate of Owolabi's cat is not known.