Candle blamed in blaze at S.L. senior apartment

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Aug 17, 2005

A senior apartment complex in Salt Lake City was evacuated Tuesday afternoon after a small fire broke out in a second-level apartment.

The fire started at the Lowell Apartment complex near 700 South and 200 East, because of an unattended candle burning in the apartment, said Scott Frietag, Salt Lake City Fire Department spokesman.

Erika Wing, who lives in the apartment where the fire started, said she only left her apartment for about five minutes and thought all her candles were extinguished.

"I'm usually really careful about blowing them out," Wing said.

Frietag said that sprinklers put the fire out before firefighters arrived. Residents of the 80-unit apartment complex sat outside while crews cleaned up water from the sprinklers.

Most of the damage, which Frietag estimated at a couple of thousand dollars, occurred in Wing's apartment and the apartment below it.