An early-morning Saturday fire in East Aberdeen left the building uninhabitable and displaced the tenants.
The initial call came in just after 4:30 a.m., said Aberdeen Fire Chief Dave Golding in a news release. Residents were woken by the fire, Golding said.
“They woke up to the fire, grabbed their baby and ran out,” Golding said.
The call was for a structure fire in an apartment building on the 900 block of Lafayette Street, Golding said.
“It came in as a structure fire and some explosions heard — people screaming ‘call the fire department,’ that sort of thing,” Golding said. “Initial units saw heavy fire coming out of the front and the back of the building.”
The fire initially began on the ground floor, Golding said, adding the department is still examining the results of their investigation to determine the cause.
“Fire went up the outside of the building and went up into the attic space,” Golding said.
Initial personnel on scene entered the interior but were soon driven back by the intensity of the fire in the attic space and threat of structural collapse, Golding said.
Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World The residents of an apartment building in northeast Aberdeen were displaced after a fire early Saturday morning caused severe damage.
“When they breached the ceiling up in the attack space, there was way too much fire for them,” Golding said. “They weren’t able to sustain that.”
Aberdeen firefighters, assisted by additional personnel and engines from Cosmopolis and Hoquiam, assumed a defense posture, attacking the fire from outside, until they were able to get inside once again, Golding said. Golding also thanked Aberdeen police for assisting operations by getting the residents of the other units evacuated.
“It took the crews approximately one hour to get the fire under control to get to the point where they could go back in,” Golding said. “We were on-scene for just over three hours total.”
Golding estimated the damage to the structure at $450,000 from fire, smoke and water damage. The Red Cross assisted in finding shelter for the displaced residents, Golding said.
“I would say that it is a total loss, is my guess,” Golding said.
There are steps you can take to impede the growth of an active fire, Golding said.
“In the event that you do have a house fire and you leave, try to remember to shut the door behind you,” Golding said.
Shutting doors denies the fire a path to get fresh oxygen, helping to stymie the spread.
Service agencies respond
At about 6:30 a.m. AFD contacted the American Red Cross, which sent caseworkers to Aberdeen, according to Abby Walker, communications manager for the American Red Cross Northwest Region. The Red Cross provided, and continues to provide, essential resources like safe shelter, food, water, prescription medication or other items lost in the fire, Walker said.
Walker said the Red Cross determined a congregate shelter, sometimes used to temporarily house people displaced by disaster, was not needed.
“In this case, we’re working individually with each family to assess what their sheltering needs are and then taking care of those as we can,” Walker said.
As of Monday, the Red Cross was assisting 16 of the 21 displaced residents. The fire displaced six families, said Craig Dublanko, CEO of the Coastal Community Action Program, Grays Harbor’s coordinated entry and emergency housing provider.
Dublanko said CCAP is actively working to rehouse one of the displaced families that was already enrolled as a CCAP client. He said CCAP is supporting the Red Cross in its effort to rehouse the remaining residents, and “filling in the gaps” with services when needed.
“We try to do our best to serve where we can,” Dublanko said. “If it’s an emergency that comes up, a lot of the time we’re a natural place to get involved and help make sure people are getting what they need.”
Many of the displaced people were Spanish-speaking, Walker said, requiring volunteer translators from the Red Cross to help communicate emergency needs.
Amber Wessel, warehouse and distribution manager for The Moore Wright Group, also worked with a translator Saturday morning after the fire to offer help to displaced residents.
“A fire is hard enough,” Wessel said. “We want to make it easier, and we want to take a little bit of stress off of them.”
Wessel said The Moore Wright Group offers service needs assessments in both English and Spanish for people displaced by disaster. While the group hadn’t yet assisted Lafayette Street residents as of Monday, Wessel said it provides immediate necessities for fire victims and replaces secondary necessities long term, such as pet items.
Wessel said The Moore Wright Group, a growing agency, is working on ramping up inventory of relief items for house fire victims.
Grays Harbor has the second highest house fire risk of any county in the Red Cross’ Northwest Region, which includes most of Washington and some of Idaho. That information has led Red Cross officials to choose Grays Harbor as the site for this year’s “Sound the Alarm” campaign, which will involve the installation of 400 smoke detectors in the county this fall. Walker said more information about the campaign will be released soon.
Walker said residents impacted by the fire still seeking service can contact the Red Cross at 1-800-RED-CROSS.
Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com. The Daily World Reporter Clayton Franke contributed to this report.
