Fire sends a lot of accordion history up in smoke

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, July 6, 2005

YAKIMA – On the day the music nearly died, this living legend, Yakima Valley’s own maestro of the “macaroni box,” Al Maletta Sr., woke up earlier than normal.

The 90-year-old accordion instructor regularly rises at 5:30 a.m. But on June 16, he woke up a half-hour early.

That – and the grace of God, he surmises – saved him.

Maletta made it out of his burning building minutes before flames licked their way up a staircase and into his apartment, No. 11, where he had lived for nearly 15 years.

The fire destroyed or damaged everything he owned, including an accordion, silk ties hand painted with likenesses of the instrument, a collection of rare sheet music and black-and-white photographs from a bygone era when his accordion school enrolled about 500 children from Cle Elum to the Tri-Cities and Walla Walla.

“A lot of history went up in smoke,” said Maletta, who was eating breakfast on the morning of the fire when he heard an odd whistling sound.

“I heard a strange sizzle, then all at once – bang! – like an explosion, like the Fourth of July, like a cannon cracker,” said Maletta, father of three, grandfather of eight and great-grandfather of 12. “I knew then something was happening, but I didn’t know what.”

The manager rapped on his door, then a firefighter, both telling him to get out of the blazing building – no time to grab any belongings.

He escaped with only the clothing he was wearing – “and myself,” he said – but without his wallet, checkbook, medications, eyeglasses or false teeth.

He’s grateful he got out alive. So are his children.

“The whole place went up,” said Maletta’s son, Al Maletta Jr., 58, a professional accordion player who learned from his father. “He would’ve been toast if he had stayed in there. Good thing he’s an early riser.”

On his way out, fleeing down the hallway, Maletta glanced back in time to see fire spreading up the stairwell toward his apartment.

“That’s what scared me the most,” said Maletta, who’s since had nightmares about the experience. “I imagined it was like a devil, reaching out to grab me.”

The fire at the 10-unit Camelot Executive Suites caused an estimated $400,000 in damage. It has been labeled suspicious by fire officials, along with another blaze just after 4 a.m. June 14 at the Lake Aspen Apartments.

Yakima Fire Department Deputy Chief Brian Schaeffer said both fires could have been deadly.

Gary Taylor, 54, owner of Taylor’s Music, is relieved Maletta survived.

“It would be a shame to lose that kind of music legend,” he said. “It’d be kind of like when a legendary baseball player dies. It’d be terrible.”

The son of immigrants from southern Italy, Maletta moved to Yakima from Seattle in 1936.

Then, he said, the accordion was as popular in the Valley as the guitar is now. It wasn’t too long before he and a business partner, one of his former students, Bob Deccio, had their own music school.

They sold it to Taylor 11 years ago. But Maletta, who graced the cover of the July 1947 issue of Accordion World magazine, still gives lessons a few times a week at what’s now Taylor Music, barely a block from his scorched apartment.

Maletta hopes his collection of accordion music, dating back to the early 1900s and hailing from all over the world, can be restored. He’s also hoping his bedroom furniture, purchased at the time of his 25th wedding anniversary, can be salvaged.

Maletta has lived alone since 1979, when his wife, Yolanda, died. They were married in 1939 when she was 19 and he was 25.

Photographs of Maletta’s charred apartment show his melted television, smoke-damaged wool suits and the eerie image of a bedroom wall where his cross had been hanging.

“I think the experience was a shock to his body,” said his eldest daughter, Beverly Arralde. “He’s become very shaky.”

The family has been regrouping, deciding what to do in the aftermath of the fire. Maletta has been staying at Arralde’s Yakima home. His youngest daughter, Mary Kay Anabtawi, has been helping sort out the insurance. Al Jr. picked his father up from the burned apartment.

Maletta hasn’t been back since.

“I don’t want to go back,” he said, dressed in a shirt borrowed from his son and shoes, a little too large, that belong to his 20-year-old grandson.

“We’re going to keep him with us,” said his eldest daughter, who gives him rides to one of his private accordion lessons.

Said his student, 53-year-old veterinarian Sam McIlvanie: “I’m counting on another 10 years of lessons.”