At least four units of the Townhouse West Apartment Complex in the 200 block of South Washington Avenue in Iola sustained damage after a fire started on the third floor Tuesday evening.
Iola Fire Chief Chase Waggoner said the fire was doused quickly because of the complex’s sprinkler system.
“The sprinkler system did an amazing job,” Waggoner said. “Unfortunately, the room itself had moderate fire damage but heavy water damage.”
Three apartment units directly below the fire source also sustained heavy water damage, Waggoner said, and water seeped out of the apartment into the hallway.
“Most people think when a sprinkler system goes off, all the sprinklers in the building start working, but it’s not like that,” the chief said. “There was only one sprinkler head, but it still put out a lot of water.
“When we got to the scene, there was smoke in the hallway, and we were thinking ‘Oh boy, this could be bad,’” he continued. “But the sprinkler system had done its job.”
The resident was not home when the fire was reported, Waggoner said, but returned to the complex while firefighters were on the scene.
“He had been running errands,” Waggoner said.
None of the residents in the building were injured, but one firefighter suffered apparently minor injuries slipping and falling on the ice.
In normal conditions, the Townhouse building would have been evacuated, with residents sent outside.
“Obviously, with this weather we couldn’t do that,” Waggoner said.
Instead, the residents gathered en masse in the building’s lobby, well away from the fire.
Allen County’s Emergency Management Department and Red Cross officials were on hand to help with the crowd control, Waggoner noted.
“It was great having them to help with everybody,” Waggoner said. “It’s not like they could walk to a friend’s house in this cold.”
Most were allowed to re-enter their apartments after the fire was extinguished. Those on the third floor had to stay away a bit longer because of high levels of carbon monoxide, a common byproduct of a burning fire. They were allowed to return home after firefighters pumped out the “bad air” and carbon monoxide levels dissipated, Waggoner said.
