A woman who fell asleep with a lit cigarette died Sunday morning after her apartment caught on fire in Vancouver’s Rose Village neighborhood, according to Vancouver fire officials.
At 10:22 a.m., firefighters were called to the Courtyard Village Apartments at 2600 T St., Vancouver Fire Marshal Heidi Scarpelli said. They found flames in a second-floor unit of a two-story apartment building and were able to extinguish the fire before it spread to any other apartments.
The unit’s only occupant, a 27-year-old woman, died of smoke inhalation, Scarpelli said. Investigators determined the fire was accidental, and it sparked on a bed in the two-bedroom apartment after the woman fell asleep with a lit cigarette.
Witnesses told investigators a smoke alarm was sounding at the time of the fire.
Officials did not release the woman’s name Sunday because they were still working to notify her family of her death.
“This is absolutely tragic,” Scarpelli said. “These are the types of fires that can be prevented, and it’s so important that people realize that when they’re smoking to not smoke in bedrooms or sleeping areas where they’re more susceptible to fall asleep.”
Mike Rice, a resident at the complex who lives in a nearby building, said he noticed what smelled like paper burning, then stepped outside and heard smoke alarms.
“I looked over this way and saw smoke coming out of her window,” Rice said early Sunday evening, gesturing toward a second-story apartment blocked off with caution tape. After noticing the smoke Sunday morning, he and other residents banged on the door to the apartment and were able to force their way into the unit, Rice said.
They got a dog out of the apartment and tried to kick in a bedroom door before the smoke became too much, he said. He added that he didn’t know anyone was home and couldn’t hear anyone yelling from the bedroom.
“If I knew she was back there, I would have busted down the door when I first went in there,” he said. Rice said he and another neighbor began dousing the apartment with a garden hose before fire crews arrived.
Sunday evening, neighbors and friends of the woman gathered outside her apartment. They described her as an outgoing free spirit who was the first one to say hello when a new tenant moved in.
“She was one of the few people who actually believed in me,” neighbor Jonathan Spratlen said. “She has a beautiful soul and no one could ever be like her.”
The fire caused an estimated $42,000 in damage, Scarpelli said.
The water crews used to extinguish the fire also damaged nearby units, displacing some of the complex’s residents. According to the Red Cross, the damage displaced seven adults, eight children, two cats and two dogs. The organization is providing them with food, housing and other disaster services.
Crews from the Vancouver Fire Department and Clark County Fire District 6 responded to the incident. Scarpelli said the medical examiner is performing a toxicology report to determine whether the woman was impaired when she died.
Scarpelli said smoking is one of the top three causes of preventable fires in Vancouver, along with cooking and candles. She warned against leaving the stove top unattended while cooking and leaving unsupervised candles burning. Cigarettes should be put out in a metal ashtray with sand or water, she said.
