Early Thursday afternoon, March 26th just before 1:00pm, a fire broke out in a fourth-floor apartment at the Surf Apartments located at 108 H Street, Crescent City.
Originally dispatched as a fire alarm sounding at the location, the response was quickly upgraded to a structure fire when dispatch advised there was smoke in an apartment on the fourth floor, and occupants were beginning to evacuate.
First Units on scene reported that light smoke could be seen coming from an apartment on the Front Street side of the building, and that the fire alarm system was activated. There were some occupants already on the street in front of the building.
Crews entered the building for fire attack and search and encountered a number of residents in the hallways and still inside their rooms. The ladder truck was positioned with the ladder to the fire apartment. The fire attack crew found the apartment full of smoke, but the fire had been extinguished by one sprinkler head that activated in the bedroom where the fire had burned a laundry basket of clothing and began to burn the mattress next to it.
Search efforts continued as additional occupants were removed or sheltered in place on lower floors away from the fire location. The sprinkler system was shut down, smoke was removed from the building, and crews worked to protect property from water damage.
Unfortunately, 12 occupants were displaced by the fire and subsequent water damage to apartments next to and below the fire apartment.
Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services assisted with Red Cross to temporarily house the 12 displaced occupants. Property management on scene was coordinating with an electrician to restore power to the undamaged apartments. Cleaning resources were also being brought in for water removal.
After investigation of the fire scene, the cause of the fire appears accidental from a dropped cigarette between the bed and laundry basket. Repairing the damage from the fire and sprinkler flow could be as much as $50,000.
“The sprinkler system did its job today at the Surf Apartments by quickly knocking down the fire. Without the fast response of a working automatic fire sprinkler system combined with the fire department response, this situation would have likely been tragic as the mostly elderly occupant population attempted to flee from what could have been a rapidly growing fire.” said Crescent City Fire Chief Bill Gillespie.
