MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A fire started on a second-floor balcony of the Cascade West Apartments Tuesday night, but firefighters don’t know yet what sparked the flames.
Tenants have two difference versions of what happened: that it was either a carelessly discarded cigarette or a firework.
J.J. King lived next door to the balcony that burned. He said he heard yelling outside and stepped out on his own balcony to see a “whole bunch of orange.”
Within a half hour, flames tore through the center of the building.
Four tenants were hurt, including one who was airlifted to Harborview in serious condition. Two hundred people were forced out of their units, but many hesitated because they said there were false alarms at the complex on a regular basis.
“I just assumed it was just a kid being dumb,” Kirk Deogracia said.
It wasn't until someone started pounding on the door that Deogracia moved his extended family with everyone still in their pajamas.
“I grabbed a blanket, and my daughter and I ran,” said his girlfriend, Jasmine Henry.
Henry's baby is just 8 days old.
“I got down the stairs, turned around and saw the 30-foot flames,” Deogracia said.
Late Wednesday afternoon firefighters allowed some of the tenants back into their units to salvage what they could.
“It was soaking wet, like everything was drenched,” Philip Rodgers said. “Most of the stuff in there was completely destroyed, probably won’t get most of it back.”
All 38 apartments in the building were damaged. Six were burned so badly they are no longer safe to enter.
KIRO
