Early this morning, the Asheville Fire Department responded to a three-alarm fire at the Turtle Creek apartments. More than 50 firefighters, including several from other fire departments, battled the blaze for over an hour. According to the AFD, 31 people lost their homes, but no one was killed or injured in the fire.
Photos courtesy of Asheville Fire Department
An announcement from the AFD notes that the fire broke out around 2 a.m. due to unattended cooking.
“The fire spread through a common attic area and has severely damaged several apartment units within the structure,” the report reads. “The Asheville Fire Department was assisted by Skyland Fire Department, Buncombe County Rescue Squad, Reynolds Fire Department and Fairview Fire Department at the scene. Units from Riceville Fire Department assisted with standby crews within the City of Asheville to assist with further emergencies.”
Three people were rescued from the burning building, with no reported injuries. The American Red Cross is assisting the residents displaced by the fire.
— David Forbes, senior news reporter
Thought code was there had to be barriers so fires couldn’t easily spread through a shared attic space?????
All a fire wall can do is slow the fire down. If a structure is fully involved, there is no economically affordable barrier that will stop a fire from spreading from one area of a building to another.
Didn’t seem to slow this one down that much. I’m suspicious of those buildings built of plastic. Wonder what the stats are on them?
Those apartments were probably built before fire walls were part of the fire codes.
They were pre-fab with vinyl siding. Not meant to last through much of anything. Probably someone left their heater on and it caught something on fire. I feel bad for the 31 families who lost their homes probably because of one person.
Oh, it was cooking. Sorry.
They were built as cheaply as possible to maximize the return on the investment.
Anyways, I am a bit fuzzy. A building went up, causing a loss of home for 31 people, of whom only three were rescued while the fire was burning and this all happened because someone was cooking at two in the morning?
Were the three rescued unable to get out on their own or were there only 3 of 31 residents at home at 2am?
So the apartments went up in flames like trailers do.
I recall seeing the fire at HillCrest Apartments last year. Flames were very high, but the fire was contained….didn’t spread through out the whole building. Gotta wonder.
@mat catastrophe:
The three rescued residents were trapped by the fire and had to be rescued by fire department ladder. The rest of the residents escaped on their own.
Not really any wonder, Hillcrest was probably built above the existing standards at the time and under government supervision.
You can’t trust private industry to do anything correctly, only cheaply.
I think this is something like the third building that has caught fire at Turtle Creek.
“You can’t trust private industry to do anything correctly”
Dang, I was thirsty and someone drank all the coolaid!