Three-alarm fire leaves Hazel Dell families homeless

Thursday’s three-alarm fire at the Rolling Creek Apartments was a rarity. Some other memorable three- and four-alarm fires in recent years:

o November 1995: A four-alarm fire destroys the Broadway Auto Shop, 114 E. Sixth St., and kills an 8-year-old boy sleeping in a back room.

o September 2001: A three-alarm fire heavily damages a 90-year-old home converted into apartments at 606 W. 13th St.

o November 2000: A three-alarm fire destroys the old Elahan Place mental health facility, 1214 W. 24th St., which had been boarded up.

o December 1998: A three-alarm fire damages the ductwork and other parts of the finishing room at Pendleton Woolen Mills in Washougal.

o August 1994: A three-alarm fire ruins the New Liberty Theater in Camas. It is later rebuilt.

Call the Red Cross at 360-693-5821

More than 50 firefighters spent Thursday battling a stubborn 3-alarm blaze that ripped through a building at the Rolling Creek Apartments in Hazel Dell, displacing 56 residents from 24 apartment units in what was one of the largest local fires in recent memory.

One firefighter was taken to a hospital with back strain, and later released. And a citizen was transported for chest pains, but no other injuries were reported.

Hours after the fire broke out at 2:33 p.m., flames were still visible on the roof, and heavy smoke fouled the air.

As the first crews from Fire District 6 and the Vancouver Fire Department grew fatigued, engine crews from as far away as Ridgefield, Battle Ground and Woodland were called on to supply fresh firefighters.

The fire started in a bedroom of a downstairs apartment, said Dawn Johnson, spokeswoman with Fire District 6. Flames raced up and spread through the attic and roof, both north and south, but mostly to the north end, where flames gutted the roof and caused parts of it to collapse.

The fire spread through a common attic that connected all the units in Building F. Only four units on the south end escaped flame damage, but they were damaged by smoke.

It appeared, Johnson said, that the entire building, one of six in the complex, might have to be demolished and rebuilt.

As of Thursday night, investigators said the fire appeared accidental but the cause remained under investigation.

Parts of the collapsed roof landed near parked cars.

At one point, a firefighter was on top of a fire engine shooting a high-volume water monitor up onto the roof. The cannon’s stream was so powerful it was peeling back shingles on the roof. Glass was broken by the intensity of the fire.

Another firefighter climbed 100 feet up the ladder of a very large truck and streamed water down onto the north-side roof as flames continued to flare.

Early on, firefighters went into the building but had to retreat because of the danger. The main initial attack was defensive all around the building, meaning that firefighters were limited to streaming water from outside.

As a result, it took firefighters three hours to control the blaze, Johnson said. Crews planned to work through Thursday night to douse hot spots.

In addition to the building, the lives of many of the building’s displaced residents will need repair, too. As of Thursday evening, Johnson said Red Cross volunteers had registered 56 men, women and children who will need emergency help such as food, temporary shelter, clothing — and new places to live.

Angel Simpson, 25, lives in a north-side unit where the fire was heaviest. She said a man knocked on her door to warn her of the fire.

“He asked if people were home,” Simpson said. “The very last thing he said was fire! I asked if he was joking and he said, ‘Get your animal and get out!’ “

She grabbed her Jack Russell terrier, Brows, but did not have time to find her orange cat, named Nermal.

More than an hour after the fire started, someone saw the cat jump from the second floor, apparently to safety. “He’ll come home when he finds his people. He’s a good cat,” she said.

Later, it was reported that a cat that looked like Nermal had been found and taken to a vet.

As she stood in the parking lot watching firefighters work, a teary Simpson said, “That’s my apartment, the one with the hose directed on it. I lost everything. My school books, my daughter’s stuff. I’m in my pajamas.”

Simpson said she works at the Starbucks inside Safeway at Northeast 63rd Street and Andresen Road.

The complex is at 7201 N.E. 13th Ave., just east of the Highway 99 strip through Hazel Dell and south of 78th Street.

At one point, about 75 people were backed against the fence of a neighboring apartment complex watching the fire burn. Cynthia Creamer was there.

She is an in-home caregiver for Mildred Horn, an elderly woman who lives in Apartment F-2.

Horn was in bed when Creamer answered the door. “Get out, get out! There’s a fire!” someone said.

She was able to get Horn, 67, out of bed and out of the apartment uninjured, but the woman was transported to the hospital after her blood pressure soared.

On the positive side, firefighters kept the raging beast from leaping to other buildings of the complex. Several buildings in the complex and others are perhaps only 100 feet away from the destroyed building.

Linda Lane, who lives on the opposite end of the complex, said she was nonetheless shaken.

“Any kind of fire scares me,” said Lane, 60, of Apartment D-1. “Here we are hoping like hell nothing spreads too far.”

The older wood-frame complex is owned by a Fife-based real estate investment trust, according to Clark County property records. The F Building, one of several in the complex, is two stories tall. The complex had apparently been reroofed, with multiple layers of shingles complicating firefighting efforts.

Clark County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steven Shea said many residents are not financially well off. A displaced resident told a reporter he pays $625 a month for a two-bedroom apartment there.

The building has no sprinkler system, said Johnson, the fire department spokeswoman. “Having sprinklers would have really helped out,” Johnson added.

Clark County Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway went further. “If we’d had sprinklers, we’d probably be talking about a one-room fire, and it’d probably be out by now,” he said.

The Red Cross set up a registration center for displaced occupants in the manager’s office of the large complex.

Officials said late Thursday night they’d registered 56 people who were displaced. About four of those will stay at a church shelter.

Today, an official said, Red Cross volunteers will look to help with permanent housing and food, medicine and eyeglasses.

Some people might need mental health services and the Red Cross would help with that, an official said.

Bryan Beaupre, 29, was among the many residents lined up near the manager’s office, waiting to have their names called by the Red Cross. He lived in apartment F15 with his wife and their two children, 2 and 1.

He said firefighters earlier told him he could not go into his apartment to retrieve belongings.

“I wish they had let us in a half-hour ago so we could get some of our stuff,” said Beaupre, whose apartment had not been touched by about 4:40 but was susceptible to being consumed. “Everything we own is in there,” he said.

On the north side of the building was only a small parking lot, limiting how many fire engines could actually get close to the main fire on that side. They pulled very heavy hoses to hydrants, one about a block down 13th Avenue.

There was so much fire apparatus on scene, about 16 ladder trucks and engines, some arriving crews had to park along the avenue, all the way north to the KFC on 78th Street. AMR Northwest ambulance paramedics were standing by. Also at the scene: a truck to refill firefighters’ air tanks and fire paramedic trucks.

As Dunaway noted, the fresh firefighters and equipment from those apparatuses was the primary need.

Dunaway said investigators hope to speak with as many people as possible who were witnesses to the fire, to learn what caused it. “There’s a chance someone saw something we need to know about,” Dunaway said.

Anyone with information is asked to call 360-397-2186, ext. 3324.

It was hours before fire marshals could safely go inside to begin looking for the cause.

Sheriff’s deputies controlled traffic near the apartment complex, which is situated on a quiet residential street. At about 6 p.m., a C-Tran bus arrived and parked near 78th Street. The driver said he’d been sent to transport displaced residents to a shelter, if needed.

Near the manager’s office later Thursday evening, a number of people, including nine Red Cross volunteers and apartment managers, were trying to find out how many people needed emergency shelter. That included calling residents of the destroyed building who had not yet arrived home from work.

A shelter at a local church was available in case Red Cross volunteers determined it was needed. Many residents planned to stay with family and friends.

Folks from Columbian Christian Church brought donated clothing in a van.

Officials with Clark County Animal Protection & Control arrived with cages to help capture displaced pets.

Judy Ballauer and Lisa Gobert, who work at another apartment complex, came to help on their own, saying they’d gone through a similar fire.

“We saw this on the news and said, ‘We’ve got to help,’ ” Ballauer said.

They drove to several nearby businesses and obtained 12 donated pizzas and 10 cases of water and brought them to Rolling Creek. The KFC also was donating many meals, an employee said.

Gobert, an apartment manager, said she’d been calling other apartment complexes, trying to find some with vacant units, which is difficult these days with many complexes filled to capacity.

Around Rolling Creek’s office, displaced tenants, many with small children, were waiting, some holding blankets. Water, juice and snacks were there for them.

Even at 8 p.m., firefighters were pulling their hoses into apartments to douse embers and small fires.

John Branton: 360-735-4513 or john.branton@columbian.com.