No injuries, fire caused by bathroom ceiling fan
Several Fort Morgan families will be placed in other living quarters after an early-afternoon fire damaged their units in the Gateway Apartments complex in Fort Morgan.
No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters had the blaze contained within about 30 minutes.
A call from a resident of a third-floor apartment who smelled smoke was received about 12:45 p.m., according to Fort Morgan Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Trae Boehm. The Fort Morgan department responded within minutes, eventually bringing a total of 23 firefighters and the department’s ladder truck, three engines and a rescue unit, Boehm said.
Other residents of the apartment building had evacuated on their own and the
complex’s maintenance person was attempting to put out the fire with an extinguisher when firefighters arrived. Fort Morgan Police checked all of the apartments in the 12-unit Building B on the complex’s east side to be sure none were occupied.
Because the fire was in an apartment building and the extent of it was unknown at first, assistance was requested from neighboring fire departments to ensure sufficient manpower and equipment were available to prevent the fire from spreading.
The Brush department sent six firefighters and an engine, and Wiggins firefighters were en route before they were called off because the incident was under control, Boehm said. Fort Morgan Police, the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office and Morgan County Ambulance Service also responded, along with workers from Fort Morgan’s electric and
building departments and other utility departments.
It is believed the fire started in a ceiling exhaust fan in a bathroom of the second-floor apartment below the unit from which the fire call originated. It burned up into the third-floor apartment, and both units were heavily damaged by fire as well as smoke and water. Boehm said the first-floor unit beneath the source of the fire was also likely uninhabitable due to damage from the water used to fight the fire.
The Red Cross was contacted and was preparing to assist with placing the affected families in other living quarters and helping with other needs like clothing and food, said Fort Morgan Police Chief Keith Kuretich. Kuretich said he was told by the maintenance worker that the apartment complex’s insurance would cover the cost of alternate housing for the displaced families.
Boehm said the fire was a serious incident that could have been much more
catastrophic. He said fires in multi-story apartment buildings are “some of the hardest fires we fight” because of access problems and other issues.
Four firefighters entered the apartment on the initial attack, and a total of about 10 had cycled through the apartment by the time the fire was out, Boehm said. The FMVFD used its ladder truck to provide a “secondary egress” from a window of the second-floor apartment.
Among the 23 FMVFD volunteers who responded were five retired firefighters, Boehm said. The department began a system several years ago to send text messages even to retired firefighters for calls on which extra help may be needed, he said.
“It’s pretty neat,” Boehm said.
Several dozen residents of the apartment complex and other onlookers gathered in the central parking lot of the complex as firefighters and police wrapped up their operation at mid-afternoon. A sturdy fire hose snaked across the lot to the large aerial ladder truck, which was anchored by outriggers just outside the fire-damaged apartment building.
Police said they would have the scene cleaned up and roads reopened before
classes let out at 3 p.m. at Pioneer Elementary School, just a block from the Gateway Apartments across Southridge Road on Fort Morgan’s southeast side.
