A fire that started at an apartment building at 1 Washington St. on the upper historic loop about 6 a.m. on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, swept through the building, but all six occupants of the building were able to get out safely, John Rankine, building owner, said.
“The people at the witches’ hat house next door saw the fire first and went over to alert people to get out,” Rankine said. “There were four units with six people. Everyone was at home and everyone got out. The origin of the fire is still being investigated by the fire chief. We believe it started on the lower right bottom level.”
Rankine and co-owner Bill King started a Go Fund Me account to help the fire victims with expenses, and quickly exceeded the goal of raising $10,000. They have also set up a 1 Washington Fire Victims account at Equity Bank where people can make donations to help.
“The money goes for whatever the tenants need,” Rankine said. “We have found some temporary lodging for some of the victims, and there have been donations of things like a bed to sleep in. I just want to say how generous the community is and the outpouring of support for everyone is a big reason why we live in Eureka Springs. Lots of people are offering help.”
Smoke, and water to put out the fire, meant that most belongings were damaged.
“It was weird walking through the place,” Rankine said. “Things completely disintegrated in one apartment where everything melted. Other apartments fared better. It was very inconsistent.”
Rankine said in addition to losing an historic piece of property, they lost four units that were affordable at a time when affordable housing is very difficult to find in the area.
Until the insurance is settled, and the amount of damage is determined, they won’t know whether anything is salvageable or if they will have to tear it down and start again.
“I am determined to rebuild,” King said. “We have limited insurance, but I think the bones of the building are there and it may be able to be restored. We are going to build back better.”
Eureka Springs EMS Assistant Chief/Fire Marshal Jim Kelley said when they arrived at the scene, the fire was on the outside of the building spreading under the porch.
“We were able to remove one occupant,” Kelley said. “She was on the back deck. We escorted her away to get away from the fire. Initially we responded with one fire engine and two ambulances but found that the occupants had left the four different apartments. We called out for additional manpower. Volunteers came out with another engine from the main station within a few minutes. It looked like the building would be totally involved in a few minutes, so we covered exposures on both sides.”
Kelley said they then requested manpower assistance from the Grassy Knob Volunteer Fire Department, which sent four or five people.
“That was a lot of help,” Kelley said. “Then we also requested manpower from Holiday Island Fire Department. They sent in four or five people as well. About an hour later, some of our firefighters were completely exhausted and had gone through several air packs. Then we requested additional personnel from the Inspiration Point and Berryville. We had a total of thirty firefighters from multiple departments including ours.”
Kelley said the fire got into the inside of the house and the attic area, making it hard for firefighters to access safely. While they had the fire under control after about two hours, the firefighters were there 12 hours before they had extinguished all the hot spots.
“At around noon, we started releasing the outer departments,” Kelley said. “We could not have been as successful as we were without getting help from those other departments. It was not an easy fire by any means. The Carroll County Office of Emergency Management assisted by getting food to help the guys build their energy back. Others were offering coffee and Gatorade to help, as well. It was a joint effort between the firefighters and the community to help put this out.”
Kelley said the cause of the fire is still under investigation, and that he thinks a big part of the building can be rebuilt. They were able to help remove personal belongings of some of the residents, and plan to help remove more later.
Kelley said they were sad to see the tenants displaced.
“They can’t just go find another apartment,” he said. “Few are available.”
So very sorry to read this. I hope no one was injured.