By Maria Villaseñor and Jason Bergreen
The Salt Lake Tribune
Copyright 2006 The Salt Lake Tribune
All Rights Reserved
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — Smoke and flames forced four people to jump from the top windows of a three-story condominium unit that was destroyed by a two-alarm fire late Wednesday afternoon.
The blaze at the Shadow Ridge Condominiums at 7180 S. Union Park Ave. began about 3:50 p.m. and was contained to Building 8, one of 14 buildings in the condo complex. All residents of the building escaped the fire, but the four people who jumped from the windows suffered injuries.
One woman broke her pelvis in the fall and was airlifted to University Hospital. Another woman was transported to Alta View Hospital for smoke inhalation. Two men who jumped were treated and released at the scene. Three firefighters suffered heat exhaustion; one was taken to St. Mark Hospital, according to Sheriff’s Lt. Robby Russo, chief of police services for Cottonwood Heights.
“I just came home from work and saw the second floor engulfed in flames,” said Andrea Richter, who called 911.
From her doorway just yards away from the burning building, Richter said she saw the flames spread from the second floor near the central stairwell to the third floor. Building manager Richard Duggar and the grounds crew were checking the sprinkler systems near that 24-unit building around 3:45 p.m. when they began to smell smoke.
Duggar said one man on the crew was about to knock on a door when smoke and flames started streaming out and nearly blew him away.
“As soon as I walked out of the building, it went,” Duggar said.
The grounds crew then knocked on windows and doors telling residents to leave the building, Duggar said. They also helped those who jumped from the top two floors.
While her daughter was at work, Murray resident Janet Hansen was in one of the building’s bottom-floor units baby-sitting her 4-month-old granddaughter, Madi.
“They said, ‘Get that baby and get out,’ ” she said. “So I grabbed her and went outside, and I couldn’t believe the amount of red flames.”
Emily Eliason saw the smoke as she was driving home from work, but didn’t suspect it was coming from her building. As she was calling in the incident to 911 dispatchers, she heard fire trucks arrive.
For a minute, Eliason said, she considered going into her condo on the north edge of the building and retrieving her personal belongings and some of her roommate’s things.
“I thought of getting photo albums and my scriptures,” she said.
Building 8 was left with a collapsed roof in some areas and the top two floors are charred in the center. The walls of some units were burned away.
About 60-70 firefighters from seven different cities worked to put out the blaze, which was extinguished by 5:30 p.m.
By 6 p.m., fire officials allowed residents to enter the condos and collect their belongings, but no one was allowed to stay the night. Residents of 12 of the 24 units will not be able to move back in because of fire damage in eight units and water damage in four.
The fire caused an estimated $1 million to $2 million worth of damage. Its cause is unknown, but the United Fire Authority is investigating.