Secrets of an inferno

Flames and foul smoke were erupting from a roof at the Rolling Creek Apartments in Hazel Dell last month when Deputy Fire Marshal Ken Hill — wearing full firefighter gear and breathing from an air tank — ventured cautiously into Apartment F-21.

The three-alarm blaze in the old two-story building had been first reported about 2:30 p.m. April 21 and had grown into an inferno that would take three hours to control. It would cause at least $1 million in damage and make 56 residents of 24 units homeless.

As more than 50 firefighters poured water on the building, Hill spoke with residents and other witnesses, firefighters and fire commanders.

He suspected that the blaze had started in F-21, a downstairs two-bedroom unit, while the single mother and her three children who lived there were gone.

Hill, a former longtime Camas firefighter, wanted to take a quick look inside before evidence of how the blaze started was destroyed.

The evidence could go up in smoke or be displaced, broken or reduced to dust if flames tore through the apartment again, or if the roof caved in. The causal evidence also could be damaged by firefighters themselves if they streamed too much water into the apartment or chopped into walls to get to flames hiding inside.

It was about 5 p.m. when Hill went inside, breathing cold air from his tank and peering through his face mask in the dense smoke. A crew of firefighters was with Hill to protect him in case of trouble.

Hill and the firefighters were in radio contact with each other and a fire commander. Hill had a heavy flashlight and a yellow gas-monitoring device commonly called a “sniffer” or “canary” clipped to his turnout gear. It would flash, vibrate, whistle, or even shriek if it detected dangerously high levels of carbon monoxide or hydrogen sulfide, or low levels of oxygen.

Recalling this first brief visit inside the apartment, Hill said: “I was looking for areas of greater burning and some indication of ignition sources.”

At one point during that first check, Hill separated from the firefighters.

“I wanted to quickly get an overview of all the rooms in the apartment, trying to assess the rooms of more damage and less damage.”

After 10 minutes, Hill and the firefighters left the apartment. Hill spoke with a commander, asking that firefighters do as little work as possible in the unit.

The commander agreed.

“I took off all that gear and started trying to find people to talk to, residents and witnesses,” Hill said.

As Hill conducted the interviews, the main fire was pronounced under control about 5:30 p.m., with smaller ones still burning and smoldering in much of the still-dangerous, hot, smoky and reeking building.

“By 7:30 p.m., we had a safe enough building to start a more detailed investigation,” Hill said. He suited up again, now accompanied by Assistant Fire Marshal Richard Martin.

Working side by side, they examined what remained inside and took many photos as evidence. The first day led to more. At one point, a metallurgist, structural engineer and electrical engineer joined them, hired by the insurance company that covers Rolling Creek.

The experts work for CASE Forensics, a large company that provides engineers, scientists, architects and technicians for a wide range of work for insurance companies, law firms, construction companies and much more, worldwide.

After days of work, the officials found no indication of arson and ruled it was accidental.

They concluded that the fire started in a bedroom or the hall of F-21, and possibly was caused by problems involving one of three electrical devices: a light fixture, a baseboard heater and a TV.

Those have been sent to a lab for analysis, and officials are awaiting the results.

“We don’t have that smoking gun that tells us what started the fire until that comes back,” said Clark County Fire Marshal Jon Dunaway.

If the scientific analysis doesn’t explain the fire’s cause, it might never be determined, the officials said.

Strange job, but necessary

The world of fire marshals is an odd one, with much time spent on their knees picking up and examining objects that remain, fire-damaged or not.

They work down through levels of debris like archaeologists. What’s on top fell the most recently.

The debris at the bottom may reveal the first minutes of the fire, and perhaps the cause.

“Sometimes you’re using a scoop shovel and sometimes you’re down scratching with your fingers,” said Martin, a 25-year-veteran.

“Everything we can touch and look at, we’re trying to identify,” Hill said. “Does this belong here or did it come from somewhere else? Each one of those pieces tells us something.”

“It’s what you find and what you don’t find,” an official said. “Where did it come from and how long did the fire impact it?”

The air stinks and fire marshals often have liquids dripping down their necks .

“We hope it’s just water,” Hill said.

Many folks might consider the job filthy, dark, dank, tedious, dangerous, unhealthy and even hellish, but it’s necessary. Fire investigators’ training and experience have brought them to a point where the debris whispers secrets to them.

It’s very important that a detailed investigation be made of all fires, and that the cause be determined when possible. Major monetary issues like liability and insurance coverage come into play — and even possible criminal charges if arson is suspected.

Firefighters and Clark County deputy fire marshals such as Hill say they learn something helpful from each fire.

And in a big fire such as the one at Rolling Creek, where hundreds of people live and sleep, the safety of the buildings is a huge concern.

Fortunately in this case, perhaps because it happened during the afternoon, no one was seriously injured.

Safety concerns for residents

The gutted building was built around 1972, Dunaway said. It could not have been constructed as it was under today’s tighter building-safety codes.

The building had no sprinkler system. If one had been there, it likely would have stopped the fire where it started, Dunaway said.

Current laws and codes require sprinkler systems for apartments, and also alarms that go off when the sprinklers activate.

More and better smoke alarms also are required now.

The large building’s attic had no draft stops. Those barriers, typically made of sheetrock, can prevent a fire in one area of the attic from spreading to the entire building and the roof, as happened at Rolling Creek.

Three draft stops would have been required in a building of that size today, an official said.

Hill said he has found no indications of electrical problems in the building.

Currently, investigations of the fire, and decisions about what will happen next, are still being conducted by fire marshals, building inspectors, the insurance company, the management company and the owners.

Whether the building will be demolished or just repaired is key. That’s under review by the owners and operators, and the decision could take weeks, a management official said.

“We have not yet received the final determination of the cause,” said Ed Vander Meulen, senior property manager of Olympic Management, which operates Rolling Creek.

He added in an email: “The Fire Marshal has been working very hard on that determination and spent a good deal of time with forensic inspectors. Preliminary opinion is the residents’ power was off due to not paying their bill, tenant paid to have it restored, power company restored power while tenant was not home.

“Something appears to have been left next to the child’s bedroom wall heater and may have ignited. The wall heater has been removed for testing to make sure. It would appear (so far) it was an unfortunate occurrence.”

Some tenants had renters insurance and some didn’t, he said, adding that “all renters should be encouraged to have it.”

Renters insurance typically costs about $125 per year.

Combustible materials left touching baseboard heaters have caused fires in many homes for years, often when cool weather comes and the thermostats switch on automatically, officials say.

If that were the cause at Rolling Creek, the building’s safety might not be at fault.

Once the decision to demolish or repair is made, there are laws and safety codes that will be applied, officials said. Questions about what will happen next can’t yet be answered.

The complex at 7201 N.E. 13th Ave. has several occupied buildings besides the burnt one. It now has the full attention of fire marshals and building inspectors.

One safety improvement for residents of Rolling Creek and other complexes began shortly before the fire broke out, Dunaway said.

A few weeks ago, Dunaway said, his office sent letters to many apartment complexes in the county, notifying them that he’s requiring more smoke detectors, one in each sleeping area and in the hall, than were previously required. The alarms don’t have to be the better, louder, more expensive hard-wired ones; those powered only by batteries are acceptable.