Blaze highlights safety legislation

By Andy Gates - Argus Observer
Tuesday, May 8, 2007 1:32 PM PDT

An electrical fire in Payette caused an estimated $40,000 worth of damage Monday afternoon. The Payette Fire Department was dispatched at about 3 p.m. to 6491/2 N. Sixth St., to find the upper level of a duplex in flames. PFD Chief Jeff Sands said the fire was more than likely caused by electrical malfunction in the wall of the living room.

ONTARIO - A dangerous fire that severely damaged an apartment complex Saturday morning in Ontario is one reason why area authorities are excited about a new Oregon self-extinguishing cigarette law slated to be effective in 2008.

The Ontario Fire & Rescue Department received a call around 4:14 a.m. concerning a blaze at a 10-unit apartment complex situated at 578 N.W. First St., Ontario Fire & Rescue Chief Terry Mairs said.

Authorities determined Monday that the fire likely started on or near a couch of an apartment, and the source was most likely a cigarette.

“What started it is, we suspect, a cigarette,” Mairs said.

However, Mairs said the cigarette theory is not proven.

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“We couldn’t confirm that,” he said. Even so, Mairs said self-extinguishing cigarette legislation is important. Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed a safer cigarette bill into law in April, which will require that only self-extinguishing cigarettes be sold in the state, according to an April release from the Oregon State Fire Marshall. The legislation, however, will not take hold until Jan. 1, 2008, the release shows.

Eight other states have passed fire-safe cigarette laws, including California, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Utah and Vermont, according to the Oregon Fire Marshall release.

“I’m all for it,” Mairs said of fire-safe cigarette legislation. “I can think of half a dozen cigarette-caused fires. With these types of cigarettes that wouldn’t happen.”

The fire-safe cigarettes have paper speed-bumps that act as small fire breaks, and restrict the burning of tobacco.

“When not puffed on, the burning tobacco will reach one of these speed bumps and self extinguish,” according to the release.

Cigarettes are the leading cause of fire deaths, injuries and property loss in Oregon, the April release shows. Mairs said one person, a 21-year-old man, was taken to the hospital with burns Saturday. He was the occupant of the apartment where the fire began.

“He was evidently sleeping on a couch and woke up to fire and tried to put it out by throwing water on it,” Mairs said.

Four or five other occupants of the apartment building were also sent to the hospital for an evaluation, Mairs said. One sleeping occupant was removed from his apartment by firefighters.

“One resident was asleep and didn’t know there was a fire. His apartment was full of smoke, and if we hadn’t been there, who knows what would have happened,” Mairs said.

The occupants of the apartment complex were evacuated, Mairs said, and picked up by a bus.

The bus was brought by the Ontario School District, Ontario Police Chief Mike Kee said, and police also helped remove occupants.

The American Red Cross assisted in the incident, and a temporary shelter was set up at Holy Rosary Medical Center, Kee said.

The fire caused a loss estimated at somewhere between $100,000 and $200,000, for 10 families, Mairs said.

The apartment did not have sprinklers, which was not a requirement when the building was constructed, Mairs said. However, fire alarms sounded during the incident, he said.

Mairs said he does not know of any citations potentially related to the incident that were issued.

Twenty-three firefighters, including five from Fruitland, put out the blaze within less than an hour. Mairs said he remained on-scene until investigating the incident until around 7 a.m. Saturday. The investigation into the fire resumed Monday, Mairs said.