Half of a 16-unit apartment building is lost after a fire tore through the complex Monday night, displacing more than 30 people.
Jim Vignola, Deputy Fire Chief with the Anchorage Fire Department, said an alert passerby noticed smoke coming from one unit of the six-building Anchorage Sands Apartments near the intersection of Minnesota Drive and 32nd Avenue around 4:30 Monday afternoon.
Firefighters arrived on scene to battle the blaze, helping some residents out of their second-story windows with trucks and ladders. But the smoke billowed and the flames continued to spread.
“We heard someone yell ‘Fire! Fire!’ and we could smell the smoke in my room real quick” said Alex Trefon, a resident of the burning building. Firefighters were attacking the flames with hoses over his shoulder as smoke rolled out and blanketed the ice-slick parking lot from which he was watching his home burn. “It’s getting bigger, man!” he yelled. “I don't think they'll save it!”
Firefighters elevated the call to a two-alarm fire, bringing in a total of 22 units to get it under control. Vignola said firefighters on the building’s north side hosed the fire down, hoping to knock the flames down long enough to let crew members in through the building’s south entrance.
“The crews made an attempt to make an entry, (but) they were pushed back out by the heat and smoke, by the heat and flame,” he said.
Fire crews managed to contain the flames to just one building, but all six were emptied as they struggled to control it. Again hose crews sprayed the fire, and again a crew tried to enter from the front. And again, the fire was too hot, the flames too strong.
“We encountered heavy fire conditions and hazardous conditions, a couple of holes in the floor and the backside of the structure collapsed,” said AFD Captain Mark Monfore. “They took precautionary measures and backed guys out till they knocked the fire down from the outside before they could get to the seed of the fire.”
Finally they succeeded, after nearly two hours of fighting for control.
Eight of the building's 16 units were gutted. The building’s owner, Justin Sisitch, said the older construction of the complex—built in the 1940s—meant no fire wall stood between the units. It was likely fire, smoke, or water damage would be in all of the building’s units, he said.
Evacuees gathered at nearby Aquarian Charter School, seeking refuge from the fire, smoke, and cold.
Lanoy Somvilaysack was visiting her mother, Syha, who lives in the building with other elders in Anchorage’s Laotian community. She said her mother has family and friends she can stay with in the short term, but could lose a lifetime of possessions to the blaze.
“She says if she can't get back in there, she can stay with her brother, her sister, but she hopes she can go back in and hopefully it’s not too damaged and get her stuff.”
AFD spokesperson Al Tamagni says it’ll likely be some time before the official cause of the fire can be determined, as well as a calculation of the property damage.
Firefighters continued to clean up the fire Monday night as the Red Cross of Alaska prepared to house more than 30 people displaced by the fire. Spokesperson Laura Spano said she anticipates that number the number likely rise through the night and in the coming days.
The fire on Tuesday remained under investigation, but officials said there was an estimated $500,000 of damage.