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Friday Harbor Fire Department Log
Fire destroys Friday Harbor apartment building
Rick Galer photos (top two)
Matt Pranger photos (below)
posted 07/05/01
Residents of the Mosswood Apartment building escaped with not much more than the clothes on their backs after a fire destroyed the eight-unit apartment building this morning.
The apartments are located behind the library on Guard Street.
Chris Axtman who lived with her family on the third floor said her stepson's dog saved the family. "Samson wouldn't stop barking," she said. Her husband Peter opened the curtains and saw smoke. Chris grabbed a box of photos, her boots, her bible and her glasses and ran with her family and the pit bull (pictured with firefighter Robin Dyer) down the stairs. The stairway collapsed just after they reached the ground. 
The fire started in a mattress in a ground floor apartment. The occupant woke up about 5 a.m. and found his mattress smoldering. He extinguished the fire, opened the windows to air out the room, and went back to sleep in the living room. He woke up shortly before 7 a.m. and saw the bedroom in flames according to San Juan County Sheriff Bill Cumming. 
He was trying to extinguish the fire with a hose, when county Public Works employees Doug Brow and Bryan Posenjak spotted the smoke. The Public Works building is next to the apartment complex.
"The bottom rear apartment was fully engulfed," said Posenjak." A young man was there yelling about the fire. "I just grabbed him and pulled him out of there," said Brow.
The three men woke up the rest of the tenants and made sure everyone got out. "The building went in a hurry," said Brow. "Once the windows blew, it was done."
A building used to store propane and other flammable liquids was destroyed in the blaze. County employees managed to move the tanks out of the way before the building caught fire. Road grading equipment was also quickly moved out of the vicinity.
Friday Harbor firefighters used Engine 7's aerial equipment to fight the fire. Cumming told the council in his opinion the new engine's equipment played an important role in fighting the fire. "It's a real safety valve to have something that can put that amount of water on a fire, " he said. Cumming was at the Town Council's noon meeting to deliver his monthly report to the councilmembers. He updated them on the fire, since Fire Chief Bob Low was working on the scene. Firefighters from District No. 3 also fought the blaze. It was contained at 10:16 a.m.
Five of the apartments were occupied. None of the residents were insured against fire. Tony Smith and Robert Smith were both at work at Richard Lawson's Construction when they heard their apartments were on fire. Tony's sister, Shannon, arrived home from her night shift at October house and found everything she owned in flames. Robert Smith is a firefighter recruit. He's lived on the island for a year and is in the current class of volunteer firefighters.
The Red Cross is working to help the people displaced by the fire. An account has been opened at Islanders Bank for donations. Red piggybanks will be around town.
Sharon Kivisto
and
Matt Pranger
can be reached:
phone:
360.378.3748
fax:
360.378.9748
by e-mail:
news@sanjuanislander.com
by mail:
San Juan Islander
PO Box 1118
Friday Harbor, WA 98250 USA