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Three-Alarm Fire Destroys Norfolk Apartment Building

Posted on: Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 09:00 CST

By Matthew Roy, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Mar. 8--NORFOLK -- Thirty residents escaped a dead-of-night three-alarm fire that gutted an apartment building in Park Place on Tuesday morning.

Leslie Hunt, who is raising four children, watched firefighters on a ladder truck spraying water into what had been her family's third-floor apartment. Several months ago, she said, her family had been burned out of another apartment just blocks away.

"What's the odds of this?" she asked, shaking her head. "Two times in one year. It ain't hit me yet. I got to start over again. And we were just getting settled down."

Hunt escaped with her family, but lost everything else.

The American Red Cross was helping the families with housing, food, clothing and medicine.

It was 4:07 a.m. when the first 911 call summoned firefighters to 421 W. 31st St. Residents were scrambling out of the building, which had six apartments -- two on each of its three floors, the sort common in some city neighborhoods.

Most occupants got out on their own, and they reported hearing smoke detectors sounding, said Capt. Garry Windley, a Fire-Rescue spokesman. Firefighters escorted one person down from the third floor.

The cause was traced to an electrical short in a first-floor apartment, Windley said.

Fire Chief Edward Loy Senter Jr. said the building had nothing in the walls to prevent fire from spreading upward. The structure was built in 1928, Windley said.

As the fire spread, Devon Hunt, 14, was first in his home to awaken. He roused his family. His mother, Leslie Hunt, headed out the back door with three children.

"You couldn't see your hand in front of your face," she said. Devon wound up on the front porch. Firefighters helped him down.

Firefighters put out a second alarm at 4:16 a.m. and a third at 4:36 a.m.

They fought the blaze for more than an hour inside the building, but at 5:39 a.m. they had to abandon the interior, because of safety concerns, and pumped water on to the building -- and on to neighboring buildings -- from outside.

"We just couldn't win this battle today," said Battalion Chief Bruce Evans.

The building's roof was burned away. Hours after the blaze, firefighters continued pouring water on "hot spots."

Across the street, residents watched firefighters from the parking lot of the Park Place Baptist Church. Pastor Terry Spencer said the church was doing what it could for the residents.

Red Cross volunteers were interviewing families on the scene.

Leslie Hunt knew the drill. After a fire last fall on nearby 28th Street, she said, she wound up temporarily in a hotel. She expected the same thing to happen this time.

Hunt, who works for a home health-care company, said she had just paid her $700 rent.

Her dream, she said, is to find a suitable house that she can afford.

Residents were not allowed back into the building, which was torn down later Tuesday.

But first, firefighters got into apartments on the first and second floors to retrieve some keepsakes for residents. Windley said they recovered items such as birth certificates, photos and memorabilia "to keep in the family."

Reach Matthew Roy at (757) 446-2540 or matthew.roy@pilot online.com.

Firefighters from three snorkle trucks fight the blaze.

Leslie Hunt and her four children lived on the third floor of the apartment building. She and her children were awakened by smoke alarms and were able to escape the building without injury.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Virginian-Pilot

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