Soldier’s wife perishes in apartment blaze

Published 6:47 am Monday, March 3, 2008

The wife of a soldier serving in Iraq died in a two-alarm apartment fire in Mill Creek on Sunday morning, April 17.

Anna Fayette, 23, died of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out in her bedroom at the Laurel Apartments at 1226 164th Street SE, the county medical examiner reported Monday, April 18. The fire remained under investigation as of The Enterprise’s deadline.

Residents of at least three apartments also were forced from their homes and were being assisted by the Red Cross.

The woman’s husband is serving in the National Guard in Mosul, Iraq, said Coni Conner, disaster services manager for the Everett chapter of the Red Cross.

Red Cross workers were able to get word to Fayette’s husband about his wife’s death early Monday, Conner said.

The fire was contained to the apartment where it started, a corner unit on the top floor, fire officials said. Three other units were damaged by water used to put out the fire, and the residents were evacuated as a precaution against water affecting the electrical systems in the units, said Bill Wirtz, a battalion chief at Snohomish County Fire District 7. Damage estimates were not available.

There was nothing about the fire that led officials to believe it was anything other than accidental, said Becky Erk, spokeswoman for Mill Creek police.

Erk said the fire was “pretty involved” by the time it was reported at 9:54 a.m. Firefighters from District 7 arrived five minutes later and then were joined by five neighboring departments.

Firefighters did not hear a smoke alarm when they entered the apartment, Wirtz said. A smoke detector had been installed in the unit but fire officials didn’t know Sunday if it was working.

Later they tested five smoke detectors in the building and only two were working, said Fire District 7 Chief Rick Eastman.

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.

Firefighters planned to canvass the apartment complex, reminding residents to check the batteries in their smoke detectors.

Seven or eight workers from the Red Cross’ Everett chapter were at the complex to help the displaced families, Conner said. Those on the scene included a registered nurse and a mental health counselor, she said.

Fourteen adults and five children living in six of the adjacent apartments were offered food and temporary lodging by the Red Cross, Conner said. Some residents were able to return to their apartments on Monday.

Fayette’s death is the third fire-related fatality in Snohomish County for 2005.

Bill Sheets and Diana Hefley are reporters with The Herald in Everett.