Space heater caused apartment fire

Oakland Tribune, Apr 3, 2008 by Bill Brand

OAKLAND -- Fire Department officials investigating an apartment complex fire that took the life of a 60-year-old woman Tuesday afternoon believe the blaze was caused by a space heater positioned too close to a bed.

Originally, the department reported the fire was caused by an overloaded electrical circuit in an apartment on the first floor.

The apartments only have two electrical outlets for each unit, an unusual configuration that can cause an electrical overload situation, Fire Department spokesman Lt. David Brue said Wednesday.

Investigators also found no working smoke detection devices in the two-story, 38-unit building at 3010 Adeline St., Brue said.

Firefighters who were on the scene of the fire did not hear smoke alarms as they brought the flames under control, he said.

Tenants also complained that the building's smoke detectors didn't work even as the fire spread through the apartments. A woman identified by residents as the building's property manager said "all apartments have smoke detectors, four in each hall."

The building's owner, T. A. Andrews, refused to comment, and a telephone number listed under his name rang without any answer despite several attempts to reach him.

"No comment whatsoever," he told a reporter at the building Wednesday.

The Alameda County Coroner's Bureau identified the victim as Janice Ann Lieuallen, 60. An autopsy to determine the exact cause of death has been scheduled, a coroner's deputy said.

Several people were injured, including the six Oakland police officers, who rescued residents in the two-alarm fire in the multi- unit complex that straddles Adeline and 30th streets.

The fire started in Unit 119 on the first floor and spread to adjacent first-floor apartments, including the one where the woman who died resided, Brue said.

The fire spread along the ceiling to both adjacent apartments, he said.

The heat of the fire also caused windows on a light well in the hallway to explode, then the fire spread into the light well, which was lined with brown shingles, Brue said. An apartment on the second floor was also damaged.

The American Red Cross, whose workers were on the scene shortly after the fire, was sheltering about 23 tenants who had not been able to return to their apartment as of Wednesday, and provided them with food, clothing, health care and mental health advisors.

Those with no place to go are sleeping on cots in the Red Cross emergency shelter two blocks away at the Willie Keyes Recreation Center.

"Until the damage assessment is finished, we won't know if any of them can (go) back into their apartment," said Red Cross Disaster Chairwoman Martha Fateman.

No damage estimate has been made.

"It was fortunate that the fire happened in the afternoon," Brue said. "If it had happened at night when people were sleeping, it could have been a much bigger problem," he said.