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Protecting Your Home & Family

By Anna Simon - Greenville News

Two fires that destroyed much of a senior-living complex early Sunday have been ruled arson, Anderson Fire Chief Jack Abraham said Monday.

While investigators piece together clues from the scene, the American Red Cross in Anderson County is working to help residents who lost their homes in the fire find housing, said Mary Thomas, chief fundraising officer for the agency’s Upstate Chapter.

Residents of all 45 occupied units in the complex have had to leave their apartments, Abraham said. Utilities have been turned off because of the extent of the damage by fire, water and smoke, Abraham said.

An investigation by the state Law Enforcement Division Arson Tack Force and Anderson police and fire investigators has concluded that both fires at Heatherwood Apartments were arson, Abraham said.

Abraham said authorities believe the fires are connected, and asked that anyone with any information that may be helpful concerning the investigation of the fires call the Arson Hotline at 1-800-922-7766.

Firefighters responding to a 1:27 a.m. fire Sunday found magazines burning on a table in the lobby. A second fir that appears to have started on the second floor was reported at 4:35 a.m. Sunday and destroyed much of the complex, Abraham said.

Six residents were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, along with two police officers who suffered from smoke inhalation, Abraham said. Another 45 displaced residents were taken to a Red Cross shelter.

Many of the displaced residents are staying with family members, but others need assistance, Thomas said.

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Residents of Heatherwood Apartments in Anderson were homeless this morning after a “suspicious” fire destroyed much of senior-living complex early today.

The fire was reported at 4:35 a.m., just hours after firefighters had responded to another fire at the same building. City fire chief Jack Abraham said when firefighters responded to the first call, at 1:27 a.m., they found magazines burning on a table in the lobby.

The cause of the second fire is being investigated today by SLED, Anderson City Fire and Anderson City Police arson investigators.

“It is suspicious, because it was the second fire of the night in the same building, and basically in the same location, which was the center lobby area, only the second fire appears to have started on the second floor.”

Of the first fire, Abraham said the magazines “would have had to have been set on fire intentionally.”

Abraham said all of the building?s tenants had been accounted for as of mid-Sunday morning. Six residents had to be transported to the hospital ?with non-life-threatening injuries,? Abraham said, along with two city police officers who suffered from smoke inhalation.

The Red Cross opened a shelter at Cornerstone Church, and 45 displaced residents were transported to the shelter, Abraham said.

The building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, which Abraham said was not a code violation because when the apartments were constructed, sprinklers were not required.

“If this building had been sprinklered, as with most residential structure fires, the damage would have been minimal and the occupants would have been eating breakfast at their breakfast tables, not dislodged for probably months,” he said.

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By Matt Brezius - Pottstown Mercury

It has been nearly four weeks since the massive blaze that ripped through the Riverwalk at Millennium apartment complex in Conshohocken, but the catastrophic fire is still making news.

Three lawsuits have been filed in Montgomery County Court as some continue to place blame despite the incident being ruled accidental.

Now, insurance companies are climbing on board as four major providers that insured tenants’ property and/or vehicles have filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for damages they and their clients sustained due to the blaze.

With the recent talk that someone should be held responsible, The Times Herald, which is owned by the Journal Register Company and is a sister paper to The Mercury, took a look back into the process of how Riverwalk developed by sifting through building permits, zoning records and building codes.

A question most often asked by the public is why there were not any sprinkler systems or firewalls in the attics of the apartment buildings, the area where the fire spread so quickly.

The answer: Because the law does not require them. The apartment complex was built under the National Fire Protection Association’s code of 13-Residential, meaning it would be a residential building allowing up to and including four floors.

According to NFPA 13-R, sprinklers shall not be required in attics, penthouse equipment rooms, elevator machine rooms, concealed spaces dedicated exclusively to and containing only dwelling unit ventilation equipment, crawl spaces, floor/ceiling spaces, elevator shafts and other concealed spaces that are not used or intended for living purposes or storage and do not contain fuel-fired equipment.

David Smith, an information specialist with the Department of Labor and Industry, said that in order to build under NFPA 13-R, additional firewalls had to be installed within the buildings, but were not required in any specific area.

“They weren’t forced to put the firewalls in one area instead of another, no. Under the Fire and Panic Act, they did have to put draft stoppers in the attics, but were not required to put firewalls there,” Smith said. “According to the paperwork, it seems like everything was done exactly to code.”

The complex was also given the green light by several inspection companies, including Phiscon Enterprises Inc., which reviews the fire protection sprinkler drawings and plans. According to an inspection report dated May 5, 2004, Phiscon Enterprises Inc. stated the sprinkler system criterion in place was correct based on NFPA 13-R.

Another question that has been circulating is why Riverwalk wasn’t held to federal building standards after receiving a $2 million grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

John F. Nugent, the executive director of the Redevelopment Authority of Montgomery County, said none of that federal money was ever accepted because the original proposal to which the money was granted had been changed.

“This project was originally proposed to be an office building with a parking garage, but O’Neill Properties elected not to move forward with it, so the funds were never formally accepted because they changed the use of the land,” Nugent said. “To my knowledge, no state or federal money was put toward this project.”

The NFPA said the code is designed to save lives, not buildings, and that attic fires generally aren’t life-threatening, which is why sprinklers are not required. Some community members are voicing concerns that this may not have been the best philosophy.

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By MARGARET GIBBONS - Times Herald

Insurance companies now are jumping into the litigation surrounding the catastrophic fire that ripped through the Riverwalk at Millennium apartment complex in Conshohocken on Aug. 13.

Four major insurance companies, which insured tenants’ property and/or vehicles, have filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Court seeking compensation for damages that they and their clients sustained as a result of the conflagration.

The damages sustained by their clients include losses of personal and business property, vehicle damage and expenses for alternative living arrangements, according to the lawsuit.

The four companies, which are represented by the Law Offices of Robert A. Stutman in Fort Washington, already have received a combined 117 in claims, according to the lawsuit. The four insurance companies are: Harleysville Mutual Insurance Co., State Farm, Travco Insurance Co. and USAA Casualty Insurance Co.

This is the third lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Court in connection with the fire that destroyed two occupied Riverwalk apartment buildings and the unoccupied The Stables apartment building that was under construction.

The other two lawsuits seek class action status to represent the tenants of the destroyed apartment buildings.

As in the first two lawsuits, the defendants named in the insurance companies’ lawsuit are: O’Neill Properties Group of King of Prussia, the developer and former owner of the Riverwalk buildings and the developer of the under-construction Stables apartment building; Merion Construction Inc. of Bala Cynwyd and L21 Construction Managers of Leesport, Pa., both of which are listed as construction managers/general contractors for The Stables building; Cavan Construction of Aston, Pa., a subcontractor whose employees are alleged to have accidentally started the fire; and, Bozzuto Corp. of Maryland, who took over management of the Riverwalk complex after O’Neill sold its interest.

The eight-alarm fire, which was ruled accidental, started when smoldering sparks or molten metal generated by an acetylene torch ignited the five-story wooden frame-out of The Stables building. The radiant heat generated by the blaze caused the roofs on the top of the two nearby occupied apartment buildings to catch fire, burning from the top down.

Some 345 people initially were displaced but those in the two unaffected Riverwalk buildings were allowed back Aug. 17. However, the fire that took the efforts of some 300 firefighters to bring under control consumed a combined 180 units in the other two buildings.

The allegations in the insurers’ lawsuit are similar to those raised in the two other lawsuits.

These allegations range from failing to properly supervise workers at the construction site to failing to consider fire protection implications of building a five-story wood-frame construction residential structure to failing to install sprinklers and firewalls in the attic of the Riverwalk buildings.

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By Pamela Constable - Washington Post

A Labrador retriever with a sharp nose helped his owners safely escape their burning home in Potomac early yesterday morning when his frantic barking awakened them minutes before smoke alarms went off.

The quick reaction by Jet, an adult black Lab who normally slept on a pillow in the kitchen near his basket of dog treats, also helped shave minutes off the response time for firefighters, allowing them to isolate the blaze in the garage and save most of the home, according to Montgomery County fire officials.

The owners, which county records identify as Steven and Lisa Kelber, could not be reached to comment yesterday. Part of their spacious red brick house in the 11600 block of Lake Potomac Drive was destroyed by the fire, which officials said caused about $1.2 million in damage. More than 75 firefighters battled the two-alarm blaze, containing it within half an hour.

Pete Piringer, spokesman for the Montgomery Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire began in the garage and was not suspicious. The garage and a second-story room above it were gutted, and three family vehicles were reduced to melted hulks.

“The smoke alarms did activate later, but fortunately the family pet started barking first, giving them an early warning,” Piringer said. “That dog did everything right.”

Piringer said the Kelbers and a visitor got out of the house uninjured and called 911 about 1:30 a.m. The couple have two children in their 20s, but they reportedly were not at home.

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Gold Coast News

A SURFERS Paradise apartment building hit by a fire last week did not have a sprinkler system, stairwell exhaust fans or hydrants on every floor, said firefighters.

The 22-storey International Beach Resort is one of a dozen buildings on the Gold Coast built before 1974 that do not have to comply with more recent fire safety legislation.

The blaze last Thursday night has sparked fears that a death in one of these older buildings could hurt the reputation of the city’s ‘rock solid’ high rises which do comply with legislation.

Guests who were evacuated from the high rise in The Esplanade on Thursday night were yesterday relocated to other accommodation as fire inspectors sought to determine the cause of the blaze and checked for damage.

Fire investigator Marcus Barrett said it appeared the fire, which started on the third floor and spread to levels four and five, was sparked by an electrical fault in the sub-distribution board.

Damage was confined mainly to electrical connections.

United Firefighters Union Gold Coast branch president Mark Gribble said the pre-1970s buildings were a safety hazard and made the job of evacuating and rescuing people ‘immensely difficult’. He estimated there were about 12 such buildings on the Coast.

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News-Leader.com

An early morning fire was quickly extinguished in a downtown loft apartment building today.

The fire, in the 400 block of South Jefferson, began on the stove and quickly spread to the cabinets while the residents were asleep, a news release from the city said. The smoke alarm sounded, alerting the residents, but the sprinkler system had already extinguished the fire. The fire was at the front of the apartment cutting off the residents’ means of escape, according to Fire Marshal John Marion.

“This makes a clear case for residential sprinklers,” Assistant Fire Chief Randy Villines said. “Without a functioning sprinkler system, the two occupants would most likely have perished.”

A recent study by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) shows that fire sprinklers reduce deaths per one thousand fires by 77 percent. Villines went on to add that having a working smoke alarm is key in preventing fire deaths. A separate study by the NFPA shows that 50 percent fewer people die per one thousand fires in homes with working smoke alarms than those without one.

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The Record

KITCHENER — A fire at a Kitchener apartment building last night was contained thanks to a functioning alarm and sprinkler system.

Platoon chief Ron Taves said when firefighters arrived at the second-floor apartment at 25 Joseph St. at about 8 p.m., the sprinkler was keeping the fire under control.

A flourescent light fixture in the bathroom is believed to be the cause of the spark. The fixture has been sent for testing to determine the problem.

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By Valerie Hurst - KATU

PORTLAND, Ore. – A 57-year-old woman died and two others were injured early Wednesday when a mattress caught fire at a southwest Portland retirement community, authorities said.

The fire ignited in an apartment on the fourth floor of the Bronaugh Apartments at 1434 S.W. Morrison St. shortly after midnight, according to Kim Kosmas, a spokeswoman for Portland Fire & Rescue.

When firefighters arrived, sprinklers in the building were controlling the blaze, and crews were able to quickly extinguish it, Kosmas said.

Two people lived in the apartment; the woman died and another was rescued by another tenant, both of whom were taken to an area hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation, Kosmas said.

Fire officials did not release the names of anyone involved.

The building was evacuated due to smoke that had filled the hallways, Kosmas said.

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