MILL CREEK – An apartment fire that killed the wife of a soldier serving in Iraq is the fifth fatal blaze in five months in Snohomish County.
Anna Fayette, 23, died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in her Mill Creek bedroom Sunday morning, the county medical examiner reported Monday.
Fayette’s death is the third fire-related fatality in the county for 2005. A Granite Falls man died in February, five weeks after a fire broke out in his home. A Lake Stevens man died from burns after his clothes caught fire last month.
Fire officials are seeing an alarming increase in the number of people dying in residential blazes around the state, Washington Assistant Fire Marshal Anjela Foster said.
Statewide, 21 people have died in fires since the beginning of the year, Foster said. Last year, there were 55 fatal fires. Four were in Snohomish County, Foster said.
“We’re definitely not looking at a good year. Statewide we’ve more than doubled the number of fatalities in the same period last year,” Foster said.
State fire officials have been trying to determine what is driving the increase in fire-related deaths, Foster said.
One thing clearly stands out – the lack of working smoke detectors, she said.
The majority of the residences where there were fatal fires in the county this year and in 2004 didn’t have working smoke detectors, Foster said.
Smoke detectors “are the single-most important lifesaving feature,” Foster said. “They absolutely make a difference.”
Mill Creek firefighters reported Sunday that they didn’t hear any smoke detectors while searching apartments in the 1200 block of 164th Street SE.
Later they tested five smoke detectors in the building and only two were working, said Fire Chief Rick Eastman with Snohomish County Fire District 7.
The building, because it was built in the early 1980s, wasn’t required to have a general fire alarm system or sprinklers, Eastman said.
It isn’t clear if the smoke detector in Fayette’s apartment sounded. Crews found it on the floor, where it had fallen after melting, Eastman said. The detector will be tested, he said.
The cause of the accidental fire remains under investigation, Eastman said.
Red Cross workers were able to get word to Fayette’s husband about his wife’s death early Monday, said Coni Conner, disaster services manager for the Everett chapter of the Red Cross.
The man, a sergeant in the National Guard, is stationed in Mosul, Iraq, Conner said.
A handful of residents who were evacuated from the building Sunday were able to return Monday. The fire was contained to Fayette’s third-floor apartment.
Firefighters planned to canvass the apartment complex, reminding residents to check the batteries in their smoke detectors.
It isn’t enough to have one smoke detector, Foster said. All sleeping areas and every level in a residence should have a smoke detector, she said.
Residents who cannot afford a smoke detector should check with their local fire departments. Some departments receive grants to hand out free detectors. Firefighters also are willing to help residents check their smoke detectors.
Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
