ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 8, 1997 TAG: 9701080058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO NHAT MEYER STAFF A
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
Fire investigators have not determined the cause of a Tuesday afternoon fire at Bent Creek Apartments that took firefighters two hours to control and left more than a dozen people temporarily homeless.
No one was injured in the fire, which started about 4:15 p.m. in a 12-unit apartment building in a complex on Greenway Drive near Brookside Golf Course.
The fire may have started inside a wall shared by two apartments on the second or third floor, Roanoke County Battalion Chief David Hafey said. The common wall houses plumbing and electrical wiring used by both units.
The fire was contained to one half of the building, but because it was trapped in the wall, firefighters had a hard time attacking it.
"It was a difficult fire to extinguish because it was difficult to gain access to," Hafey said.
Doris Johnson, 75, a Bent Creek resident for almost seven years, saw smoke coming from the roof when she and her husband, Earl, got home Tuesday afternoon.
"I screamed all the way up to the door," Doris Johnson said. When she unlocked the door, her second-floor apartment was filled with smoke and the smoke alarm was sounding.
She grabbed her bird, Billy, in his cage from the living room and got out. She was sitting in a lounge at the complex's community center Tuesday evening waiting for news on their belongings.
Everything was fine at 3 p.m. when she and her husband went out, she said, but she is glad they weren't home when the fire started.
Most of the other people who live in the building apparently weren't home when the fire started either.
Someone called Sue Ellen Garrett and Chris Welch at work to tell them their building was on fire.
Garrett, 25, stood outside shivering, as temperatures dipped below 40 degrees, waiting for word on her cat, Taco.
Firefighters found her other cat, Cinnamon, right away; she took him to a neighbor's house for safekeeping. Garrett's second-floor apartment is on the side opposite the fire.
As of 7 p.m., firefighters still hadn't found Taco, but they told her he might have jumped out of an open bedroom window.
Two other worried residents, Debbie and Andrew Johnson, huddled outside the building with family members and watched as firefighters sprayed the walls above their first-floor apartment.
The newlyweds, married in July, have lived at Bent Creek since October. Andrew was home when the fire started, but got out safely.
Debbie tried to hold back tears as she talked about the couple's belongings, many of them wedding gifts. It looked like most of their possessions may have been spared.
A brief tour of the apartment building after the fire showed heavy fire damage to two third-floor units on the affected side, Hafey said.
Damage to the two second-floor units on the same side was mostly limited to the guest bathrooms and utility closets, while the first-floor units appeared to have mostly smoke and water damage.
Investigators had no estimate of monetary damages. Hafey said he would not let any of the building's residents return to their homes Tuesday night.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: JANEL RHODA STAFF. 1. A firefighter walks through heavyby CNBsmoke in an upper-level hallway at Bent Creek Apartments. 2. An
inspector tours a third-floor apartment. The blaze was contained to
one half of the building, but because it was trapped in the wall,
firefighters had a hard time attacking it. 3. A brief tour of the
building after the fire shows heavy damage to two third-floor units.
color.