Fire in north Columbia damages several apartments

COLUMBIA — A Sunday afternoon fire heavily damaged one apartment and caused minor damages to several others at Phenora Apartments, at the 1100 block of N Kathryn*.

Because the building lost electricity, residents of all ten occupied units have been displaced. The Red Cross helped find shelter for residents, said Gale Blomenkamp, Boone County Fire Protection District division chief.

Blomenkamp said firefighters were called to the scene at 12:29 p.m. after a Boone County Sheriff deputy reported that the roof of the building was on fire. The fire was extinguished within ten minutes, he said.

In all, seven trucks responded to the call: two engines, two tankers, one squad, one air truck, and one quint from the Columbia Fire Department.

"Pretty much everything was lost in apartment eight," Blomenkamp said. Apartment eight is where the fire originated. The fire "flashed" there, Blomenkamp said, which means all the contents reached their ignition point and were on fire at the same time.

"We had fire through the back window, the front door and the front window," Blomenkamp said. The fire also burned through the dry wall into apartment seven. Minor fire damages occurred there, and most of the second floor of the apartment building had smoke damage, Blomenkamp said.

Residents will be unable to move back in until electricity to unit eight is isolated so that power can be restored to the rest of the building.

Blomenkamp said he could hear smoke alarms when he arrived on scene. It is unknown whether the smoke alarms in apartment eight worked because damage was so extensive.

There were no injuries. A dog was rescued from an adjacent apartment.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, although it has been ruled accidental, Blomenkamp said. Damage is estimated at $35,000.