Quick thinking by the Sitka boys basketball team averted tragedy Wednesday morning, when a six-plex in the Anchorage neighborhood where they were staying caught fire. The boys and their coach woke and rescued 11 occupants before firefighters arrived.
“We did a U-turn, and one of the guys called 9-1-1, and kinda the rest is history,” Lee said.
The Wolves were on their way to breakfast in their team van at 11 AM when coach Andy Lee said the boys noticed flames coming from an apartment building.
“We did a U-turn, and one of the guys called 9-1-1, and kinda the rest is history,” Lee said.
The Sitka basketball team was the first on scene. Lee said he saw a passerby taking pictures, but it occurred to him that something was not right.
“And I realized that no one was out of the apartment,” said Lee. “So I dispersed the guys to the perimeter to look for exterior doors and windows, because it was too involved for me to put them at risk.”
While the team alerted occupants from the outside of the building, Lee himself went in the entryway and pounded on all the doors of the six-plex. The residents — most of whom had been asleep — started coming out and were helped across the street by the basketball players.
“We were a little bit afraid that there were propane tanks on the deck,” said Lee. “So we wanted to get away from the building as quickly as we could.”
Lee said they were functioning on adrenaline, because there were a lot of people to get out, and the fire was growing quickly.
“One lady, after we got 10 out, said her baby was still inside,” Lee said. “And by that time it was more than fully engulfed. And in that moment of panic, as we were trying to decide what to do, a 14-year-old girl came running out through the only exit point in the building — and she was the baby. And so everybody got out safe.”
Lee said there was a wide age-gap in the occupants of the building — under 15 and over 60 — and that the working residents were most likely away at when the fire started mid-morning.
After breakfast, the team returned to the six-plex to check on the families they had rescued.
“The elder woman in the home — the grandmother — and the matriarch of the Samoan families that were there kinda hugged us up, took a picture, and thanked us profusely,” said Lee. “She said they were just able to get back in and retrieve a few possessions, and the fire department was doing the mop up.”
Lee is extremely proud of the conduct of his players during the emergency. He says there was no time to organize; they just found their stride waking up the residents and moving them outside.
He has little doubt that this would have been a different story if the Sitka players had not passed by when they did.
“It had the potential to be a great tragedy because they were asleep, they were elderly, and there was only one exit point for all six apartments,” Lee said. “And that’s where the fire was.”
Lee said his team is feeling good about their actions during the fire. He’s not sure how that will translate to the basketball court during the state tournament this weekend.
“We’re feeling good about ourselves,” Lee said, “but we take nothing for granted. We are humbled to have been there.”
Robert Woolsey is the news director at KCAW in Sitka.
