Second fire at Cook Street apartment building
A woman is taken to hospital after she was severely burned in an apartment fire at the Lanai Apartments on Cook Street Monday night.
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Updated: July 02, 2009 11:08 AM
A second fire broke out at the Lanai Apartments early Wednesday morning, apparently the result of careless smoking.
Two tenants were taken to hospital with smoke inhalation, but the rest were allowed to return to their suites after firefighters knocked down the blaze.
Dodi Ross, 56, who was injured in the first fire Monday night remains in hospital with burns to 30 percent of her body. She is in the trauma centre at Vancouver General Hospital, but in stable condition and "doing well," her brother Gordon Ross said.
Chillwack RCMP said the Wednesday fire started at about 4:40 a.m. on a third-floor balcony.
"The cause of the fire appears to be a cigarette that was put in an outdoor flower pot, which later ignited," Const. Angelina Bowen said.
The cause of the Monday night fire is still under investigation, but isn't considered suspicious.
Lanai manager Verna Lebel said the 10:45 p.m. blaze could have done more damage, if it hadn't been for two passersby, who awakened her and helped evacuate tenants.
"I was sleeping and they buzzed me," she said.
However, the flames were already engulfing the second-floor suite where Ross lived, and heavy smoke blocked efforts to rescue her until firefighters arrived.
The Lanai is Chilliwack's first crime-free multi-housing unit, and Lebel thinks the "community" created by that program helped save people's lives.
"We have a community here, it could have been a lot worse," she said. "Everyone was helping everyone."
"I'm just so sorry for the lady that was burned," she said. "I wish I knew who those boys were, I sure would like to thank them."
The Progress has learned the two "boys" are Gilbert Fenton, 18, and Dillon Soderstrom, 19.
"We went into the building, knocking on all the doors trying to get people out," Soderstrom said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
"The whole hallway was filled with smoke," he said, but Fenton had lived in the building before and knew his way around.
Soderstrom said they knew someone was in the second-floor suite where the fire started, but they couldn't get inside because of the smoke.
"We opened up the door, and smoke just poured out," he said.
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