By Thomasi McDonald
The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina)
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three Raleigh apartment building fires this year had two things in common, Raleigh Fire Marshal Tommie Styons said Monday.
They all started on the outside, and none of the buildings had sprinkler systems in the attic. Sprinkler systems in the apartment and townhouse attics would have made a difference, Styons said.
"The fires would have made it into the attic," Styons said. "But once the fire had got into the attic it wouldn't have spread as rapidly."
Sunday's fire at the Wildwoods of Lake Johnson apartment complex, 1201 Trillium Circle, was caused by faulty wiring in a storage area attached to a second-floor apartment. The fire displaced 21 residents.
Less than a month ago, a predawn fire was started by an undetermined cause on a third-floor balcony at the Brentwood East apartments. That fire damaged 22 apartments and displaced at least 90 people.
Raleigh fire codes do not require sprinkler systems in the attics of apartment complexes and similar multifamily dwellings, such as condominiums, Styons said. But after Sunday's fire, she hopes the city's building code council will amend the rules to require sprinkler systems for all new multifamily dwellings.
The city made a similar change after the Feb. 20 fire at Pine Knolls Townes — started by a tossed cigarette that ignited nearby pine straw — destroyed 27 townhomes. When an expert post-fire report by a Charlotte engineering company focused on the dangers of pine straw too close to housing units and vinyl soffits (the flat ventilation panels under eaves) through which the flames had entered the attics, the building code was changed to require that townhouse soffits be non-combustible.
"I think they should be required for all multifamily dwellings," Styons said. "Apartments, condos and the three-to-four family dwellings where a lot of the college students live."
Inundated this year with fire victims, one local Red Cross official said National Fire Prevention Month — beginning Oct. 1 — can't get here soon enough. In addition to the two recent apartment fires, Red Cross disaster volunteers helped families displaced by five residential fires in Raleigh earlier this month.
Red Cross officials say most residential fires usually occur during the winter months, sparked by space heaters that ignite combustible materials like curtains or blankets.
"Isn't this amazing? This is just very unusual," Sherry Mitchell, a Red Cross spokeswoman, said Monday. By late Monday afternoon, Red Cross disaster officials had provided food, clothing and hotel rooms for 18 people displaced by Sunday's fire at Wildwoods of Lake Johnson.
When firefighters arrived around 10:30 p.m., fire had engulfed half the structure. A sheet-rock fire wall helped keep the fire from spreading into the other half of the building, said Division Chief Rusty Styons of the Raleigh Fire Department. Firefighters were able to salvage some personal belongings in the damaged units, but were not able to safely enter every unit, he said.
No one was injured in the fire, but the blaze heavily damaged or destroyed six apartments. The other six units in the building had minor smoke damage, Rusty Styons said.
Will Howie, who graduated from N.C. State last year, said neighbors knocked on the door of his first floor apartment about 10:30 p.m., and he went out to try and stop the fire on the second floor with a fire extinguisher. He called 911 after he was unable to put the fire out.
"I knocked the flames back, but initially they were just too much. If I had had another extinguisher, maybe," Howie said.
Howie's apartment suffered water and smoke damage, but he made sure to save his "Labradoodle" dog, Jack, his computer and his N.C. State hat.
Copyright 2007 The News and Observer 
