By Tegan Hanlon
The Alaska Dispatch News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Two Anchorage firefighters were taken to a hospital Thursday with minor injuries suffered while battling a blaze in East Anchorage, said a fire department spokesman.
The flames ignited in a three-story condo at 6712 Lunar Drive, leased by oil and gas fiscal consultant Brad Keithley. Keithley recently gained attention after announcing he would spend $200,000 of his own money to influence state legislative races this fall.
Keithley said Thursday evening he was unsure where the flames started. He had been eating lunch while packing for a trip to California. Smoke detectors sounded inside his condo, though he thought they were just malfunctioning. Then a neighbor knocked on his door and told him that his home was on fire.
Fire crews dispatched to the condominium complex after a 911 call reported the flames at 1:47 p.m., said Al Tamagni, fire department spokesman.
Mike Davidson, a senior captain with the fire department, said no one was inside the condo when fire crews arrived. They cooled the outside of the building before fighting the flames from the inside, he said.
He said crews extinguished the fire in about 20 minutes and kept it contained to one unit of the complex.
Afterward, firefighters threw scorched objects out a second-floor window of the blackened home. Davidson characterized the damage as “pretty significant.”
Keithley said he will be spending the next few nights in hotels. He said he still doesn’t know how badly the fire scorched the inside of his home.
“Life happens and you keep going,” Keithley said, commending the fire department for its fast response and firefighters’ positive attitudes.
Tamagni said he did not have specifics on the firefighters’ injuries. The cause of the fire and cost of damage are still under investigation, he said.
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(c)2014 the Anchorage Daily News (Anchorage, Alaska)
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