Article published March 11, 2006
Federal, local officials probe apartment fire
By LUKE SHOCKMAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Local and federal agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, were on scene yesterday investigating possible causes of a fire that destroyed two buildings at the Miracle Manor apartment complex near Laskey and Jackman roads.
"It's problematic because the area of origin was totally destroyed, so it's difficult to identify a cause," Toledo Deputy Fire Chief Bob Metzger said of Thursday night's fire. "Right now we are working on a couple of theories."
The federal ATF is involved because of the dollar amount of the damage, estimated at about $2 million, Chief Metzger said.
One occupied apartment building and another building being rebuilt from a previous fire in September, 2004, were destroyed by the blaze. At least 10 people who lived in the building at 5066 Jamieson Drive were left homeless; others have been displaced because the fire knocked out electricity and gas to nearby buildings.
Cindy Whalen, property manager at Miracle Manor for Michigan-based Midwest Management, said she didn't have an exact count yesterday morning of the total number of displaced residents but said she believed there were eight or nine families in 11 apartments damaged or destroyed by the fire.
Occupants in 23 other apartments in three nearby buildings that were in some way impacted by the fire also have been offered transfers to other locations. The remaining buildings at the 18-building complex were unaffected, she said.Ms. Whalen declined to discuss any other details of the fire, other than to indicate she didn't know how the fire started. She referred other questions about residents' complaints that smoke alarms in the occupied building were not in operation to a supervisor. A message was left for that supervisor yesterday.
Midwest Management has offered to transfer affected tenants to other units either at the complex or to other apartment buildings the company owns in Toledo, Ms. Whalen said. They are also telling tenants to contact the local chapter of the American Red Cross if they need assistance.
Kristen Cajka, a spokesman for the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of American Red Cross, said yesterday afternoon that her organization had provided aid to 14 people. None of those helped needed shelter from her agency, she said.
The fire started in a building on the southwest corner of the complex. It was being rebuilt as a result of a fire in September, 2004, which displaced about 40 residents and appeared to have started in the building's laundry room.
Several displaced tenants who lived in one of the destroyed buildings mingled at the scene yesterday morning, trying to collect a few possessions before heading to the local Red Cross.
Jamie Papke, one of the displaced tenants, was angry that smoke detectors had not gone off to alert residents to the blaze, which was reported at 6:35 p.m.
"If it would have been later, we'd be dead because we would have been sleeping," she said. "At no time were there alarms going off."
Deputy Chief Metzger said he didn't know if the smoke detectors were operating.
Contact Luke Shockman
at: lshockman@theblade.com
or 419-724-6084
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