A house fire in Ketchikan Sunday morning left one person dead and another critically injured.
Ketchikan Fire Chief Rick Hines said the neighbors in the apartment upstairs from the fire noticed smoke and called for help at about 8:30 a.m.
When firefighters arrived on scene, Hines said they found light smoke coming out of the building and a small indoor fire that was easily extinguished. Crews transported the two victims inside to PeaceHealth Medical Center, where one was pronounced dead. The second victim was medevaced to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.
Hines said both victims, who were a couple, were harmed not by the flames in their home but by inhaling the smoke.
“Most, when I generalize fire victims across the United States, it is from smoke inhalation,” Hines said. “A fire produces toxic smoke. It’s going to be filled with cyanide, it’s going to be filled with carbon monoxide, and heat.”
Hines said the home did not have working smoke detectors. He said it’s even more important for residents to have smoke detectors now than it used to be, because modern materials burn hotter and produce smoke more quickly.
“These things happen very, very, very rapidly in the modern home,” Hines said. “Almost everything in our homes nowadays is made of plastic, so basically gasoline derivatives, if you will.”
One upstairs neighbor did go to the hospital to get checked out, Hines said, but was released. No other residents of the building were injured, but they were evacuated due to smoke and water damage.
The burned building is on Second Avenue, right next to the area of the fatal Aug. 25 landslide. Hines said his heart goes out to the evacuated residents, who just recently got back into their home after being evacuated for weeks after the slide.
Michael Fanelli reported on economics and hosted the statewide morning news at Alaska Public Media.
