Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993 TAG: 9304290224
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium
The investigators also looked at a videotape taken shortly after the fire began "hoping that will help in determining how the fire started and where it started," said Beverly Oliver, a fire department spokeswoman.
The tape was taken by a nearby resident who arrived at the fire soon after it was reported.
The section of the complex that was destroyed by the windswept fire early Tuesday was built in 1984 under a city fire safety code that since will has been updated, officials said.
The Pretty Lake Village complex, where 36 apartments were destroyed, would fail to meet the current code, which was revised in 1991, said Sherman Edmondson, Norfolk's director of codes administration.
But even with the stricter building code, city officials said the fire might have caused the same amount of damage because of the strong winds.
"The wood siding didn't help, of course. But in that kind of wind, with that kind of fire, nothing would," said Mike Babashanian, chief of existing-structures inspections for the city.
Of the 75 residents of the destroyed apartments, only two were injured. Harry Duke, 21, a Navy enlisted man, and Patricia Hedrick, 20, remained in critical condition Wednesday at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, said hospital spokeswoman Rhonda Hammett.
The apartment complex's owner, Pretty Lake Village Inc., bought the property in September 1986 for $2.9 million, real estate records show. The complex previously had been a condominium development.
The property's value has declined as its vacancy rate increased and assessments of other properties in the neighborhood fell. Its latest assessed value was $1.4 million, down from $2.3 million in 1991.
City officials said nearly half the complex was vacant.
Officials also said there were no records of fire code or building code violations at the apartments, although some residents complained after the fire that apartments did not have fire extinguishers and that smoke detectors did not work.
by CNB