Thursday, February 24, 2000
Response time to condo fire questioned
One neighbor reported missing
BY SARA J. BENNETT and MARIE McCAIN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — Yvonne Martin brushed back tears as she watched leftover flames lick the rafters of her condominium on Lincoln Avenue.
Firefighters were just finishing putting out a fire that damaged the four-unit condo Wednesday afternoon. Ms. Martin, her daughter and her 1-year-old grandson were three of 15 people displaced by the blaze.
“I just don't understand why it took them so long,” Ms. Martin said of the firefighters who picked through the ruins of her building. She and neighbors said they called at least 20 minutes before firefighters arrived.
Officials from Springfield Township's fire department disagreed that there was a delay. They said they received a call to respond at 2:33 p.m., and that it took six minutes for the first firefighter to arrive. The first fire engine arrived a minute later, they said.
No injuries were reported in the fire. Authorities were looking for the resident of the unit where the fire originated. The woman's turquoise Taurus was parked outside the condominium building, and neighbors said it was unusual for her not to be home when the car was there.
Firefighters were concerned that the woman may have been inside the building, but a search did not turn up a body.
Damages were estimated at $100,000. The fire is under investigation. Firefighters said it started on the second floor of one of the front units.
Ms. Martin, who lives in the back of the building, said she came home from running errands with her grandson to find smoke pouring out of the windows.
She yelled for her neighbors to call 911.
Karron Middlebrooks, who lives in a nearby condo, already had called firefighters. She said she looked out of her window and saw the smoke and heard glass breaking.
Ms. Martin and several neighbors said they called 911 at around 2:15 p.m. Hamilton County dispatchers said they were called at 2:33 p.m. Assistant Chief Rick Browe arrived at 2:39 p.m., and the first firetrucks showed up at 2:40 p.m.
When they arrived, the building's roof was on fire, Assistant Chief Browe said. It took about an hour to extinguish the blaze.
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