By Lindsay Whitehurst
The Salt Lake Tribune
SOUTH SALT LAKE, Utah — A fire started in a row of bushes and ignited a wall of flame at a South Salt Lake apartment building Monday, trapping a woman inside her home with critical injuries and forcing another to jump from a second-story window to escape.
The fire quickly spread to the front of the building in the 800 West block of Meadow Brook Expressway (3900 South), blocking some of the apartments’ front doors, said South Salt Lake Deputy Fire Chief Kevin Bowman.
Mario Garcia, 25, lives in one of the lower apartments. His brother saw the fire when he left to go the nearby pool and called Garcia outside. It was a small blaze in the bushes then, and they tried to help put it out with buckets and a fire extinguisher, he said. But the wind and the dry bushes fed the flames, which raced onto the front of the apartment complex.
“It was insanely fast,” he said. Garcia tried to run upstairs to help the woman who lives in the second-floor apartment above him, but by that time the fire was already too hot. “The flames were so strong, I couldn’t even get close,” he said.
Neighbor Ashley Knaak, 23, saw another woman bend her knees to prepare herself, then jump out of her front living room window.
“You have to do what you have to do to save your life,” Knaack said. The woman landed on the ground and hit her back. “She looked shocked.”
Firefighters arrived about 2 p.m. to find the building ablaze. Neighbors yelled that a woman, Garcia’s neighbor, was trapped inside her upstairs apartment. A crew rushed up the stairs and found her unconscious just inside her door. She appeared to have been burned as she was trying to leave, Bowman said.
Nate Caldwell, 18, saw them pull her out and carry her down the stairs, then start administering CPR.
“Her shirt was just charcoal,” he said, and she was burned on her right side, up to her face. She was flown to a nearby hospital. Paramedics initially thought she’d suffered second-degree burns over 40 percent of her body, but later revised that estimate down to 11 percent. Her name and age were not released, but her injuries don’t appear life-threatening, Bowman said.
Fire crews put out the blaze and treated the woman who jumped for a twisted ankle, Bowman said. They also gave oxygen to a dog that was overcome by smoke.
The fire left the building a black, charred skeleton Monday afternoon. One unit was destroyed and the others were damaged by smoke. All were evacuated, and the management at the Mission Meadowbrooks Apartments complex found other apartments for the residents to live in temporarily. The blaze caused about $60,000 worth of damage, Bowman said.
The fire’s cause is under investigation, though it’s believed to be accidental.
“We’re looking at a number of possible ignition sources,” including cigarettes, fireworks and matches, Bowman said. The Red Cross helped residents who need food and clothing.
Meanwhile, Garcia spent the afternoon going through his things, which mainly came through unscathed. On the lawn was a burned mattress, its metal innards exposed by the flames. It was from his neighbor’s apartment. He said she is quiet and keeps to herself; he only hears her when she leaves early in the morning to go to work.
“Right now, I’m just traumatized,” he said.
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