Apartment fire kills Stanwood man

By Cathy Logg

Herald Writer

STANWOOD — Stanwood firefighters who have responded to a disabled man’s apartment several times a week over the last few months discovered on Sunday that his smoke detector was disabled. They made sure the smoke detector was fixed that day.

On Monday, the smoke detector helped alert neighbors to an early morning fire in the man’s apartment. He died, but neighbors using a half-dozen portable extinguishers kept the fire from spreading to other apartments, Stanwood Fire Chief Scott Koehler said.

The 67-year-old man’s identity had not been confirmed by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner. An autopsy is scheduled today.

Neighbors heard the man, who is largely confined to a recliner, pounding on the wall, and then heard his smoke detector sounding, Koehler said. The neighbors called 911 and firefighters arrived four minutes later to find smoke and flames coming from the front door of the man’s second-floor apartment.

A chaplain from Snohomish County Fire District 14 consoled residents at the Hilltop House complex in the 8000 block of 272nd Street NW after the fire and said a prayer. The man was the fifth resident of the complex to die in the last year, neighbors said.

"He was such a nice man," said Nita Moe, an 85-year-old neighbor. "I saw him almost every day. We were really good friends."

She didn’t see him on Sunday because she didn’t feel well, but she had planned to take him coffee in a Christmas mug and some fruit on Monday.

"I’m hoping and thinking that (he) was sleeping," she said. "I hope he just passed out."

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but is not suspicious, Koehler said.

The fire was reported at 6:59 a.m. and the fire battalion chief arrived at 7:04 a.m. A neighbor said the resident had not been seen coming out.

The battalion chief called a second alarm, then grabbed a garden hose to put out the fire, Koehler said. Firefighters from Freeborn, Warm Beach, Bryant, Arlington, Silvana and Camano Island Fire and Rescue responded to help city firefighters. Authorities found the man’s body in his recliner in the living room of the small apartment.

The fire damage was limited to the recliner and the surrounding furniture, but the apartment had significant smoke damage, Koehler said. Crews used fans to remove smoke from the attic, and deodorized a couple of other nearby apartments after airing them out, he said.

Neighbor Jim Lynn helped get another fire extinguisher to several people upstairs who were trying to put out the flames, and his wife Bev alerted other neighbors to get out of the building.

The victim had lived at the 30-apartment complex at least since 1998, the Lynns said. His health had been declining in recent months, and he had been so ill he couldn’t climb stairs and had trouble getting out of his recliner by himself.

Both neighbors and fire officials had tried to get him some help, but he had stubbornly refused, they said.

For a time, the man’s son had stayed with him to take care of him. He was supposed to move to Oregon this month, where a daughter managed some apartments and would have been able to help care for him.

The man had been an avid hunter and fisherman. He was proud of the stuffed bear in his apartment that he had shot, and he wore a necklace with a bear tooth. He even had bear knickknacks on his window sill.

Recently, the man had broken some ribs and spent several weeks in the hospital. After that, his health began to decline and he was in and out of the hospital and a care center. His health had failed to the point that he had difficulty getting out of the recliner at all, neighbors said.

In a separate fire call Monday, Marysville firefighters responded to a report of a fire in the Cedar Landing Apartments at 88th Street NE and 67th Avenue NE, where flames from a decorative Advent candle ignited the candle’s wreath and trimmings. A smoke detector alerted the occupant and set off a sprinkler in the first-floor apartment. The sprinkler extinguished the flames, Fire Marshall Jerry Jacobsen said.

There was minor damage, but the incident could have turned out much worse without the working smoke detector and sprinkler system, he said.

You can call Herald Writer Cathy Logg at 425-339-3437

or send e-mail to logg@heraldnet.com.

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