MUSTANG — Bulldozers moved in Friday to demolish the remains of an apartment building heavily damaged by fire Thursday night. Investigators allowed residents a little time to go back in to salvage what they could from the damaged units but said they couldn't wait any longer to bring the walls down — they were just too unstable.
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Building 8 at the Fieldstone Garden Apartments, 803 Fieldstone Way, sustained about $1.5 million damage in an accidental fire about 5:30 p.m. Thursday. No one was hurt, Mustang fire Deputy Chief Roy Widmann said.
Fire investigators talked to residents Friday afternoon, trying to determine an exact cause of the blaze. The fire displaced about 30 people and left 16 units in the building with smoke, water and fire damage, Widmann said.
Alison Banks, 20, was home in her apartment unit Thursday when she smelled smoke. She opened her balcony door and saw flames. Banks and her fiance, Lane Stevens, 23, escaped the fire as flames overtook their upstairs unit. They only made it out with a few photographs and a computer.
"We pretty much lost everything. We weren't able to go back to get anything,” Banks said.
The Red Cross will pay for Banks and Stevens to stay in a hotel for three nights, but then they face financial hardship because they have to come up with enough money to move to a new place to live, she said.
"If the Red Cross had not helped us, I don't know where we would be,” Banks said.
Workers put a chain link fence around the property to keep curious people away from the structure before work to knock it down started Friday afternoon, Widmann said.
"The building is extremely unstable right now, especially with these gusts of wind,” Widmann said. "The city is anxious to get it knocked down because it is a safety issue.”
Portions of walls still standing could be seen slightly moving in high winds Friday. An apartment manager, who did not want to be identified, said the structures would be fully demolished in coming days.
Residents were busy Friday moving out their salvageable belongings before the bulldozer moved in.
Abby Hamilton, 23, and her husband, Jesse Hamilton, 23, were at Grand Lake when a relative called and told them their apartment building was on fire. Abby Hamilton said their apartment only had smoke damage. Luckily, she said, she had purchased insurance at the advice of her father, a retired Oklahoma City firefighter.
"We were the fortunate ones. We had renter's insurance, and we can go to a hotel,” Hamilton said.
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The State Insurance Commission made a slight omission in a statement they issued about the fire and renter's insurance. They said renters can "easily" get insurance for $250 per year. That is true only for the top 10 percent of the population and for people with perfect credit. The people who qualify for renter's insurance usually own their own homes. People in apartments are usually in apartments because they cannot afford or qualify for home loans. When you apply for renter's insurance they always run a credit check. If you don't have perfect credit, you will not get it. The insurance companies figure that if you have less than perfect credit, you are a risk because you probably live somewhere prone to arson or kids who play with matches. How about the kid last week at Prince Hall who was using a lit match to look for rats? The Insurance Commission put their proverbial foot in their own mouths by putting out the statement. Now if they were really interested in helping the common man (or woman), they would get a law passed or come up with a $250 per year plan for all renters regardless of credit status. This would be a huge gesture toward serving their citizens in an effective way. $250 is a chunk of change for a lot of people, but maybe even that could be broken down to 4 quarterly payments of $75. That would give the insurer a little extra for accepting payments.
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Left: A view of the Fieldstone Garden Apartments in Mustang on Friday, where a fire destroyed several units the day before. BY NATE BILLINGS, THE OKLAHOMAN
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