Kennedy Homes: An American Tragedy

“The night of the fire is the hardest part to talk about. I remember going to sleep, and then being awakened by my daughter who said to me, ‘Daddy, get up. Our house is on fire.’ I opened the door of my apartment and saw the big ball of fire. All I could do was run through it or jump over the rail. I told my wife to run. She said she couldn’t. I said if we stay here, we’re all going to burn. The whole apartment was full of smoke and I couldn’t see the rest of my children. I went into the other room to wake them up. The only way out was through the front door. The back door was boarded up by management, so we couldn’t get out that way. They said we only needed one door. I pushed my wife and kids out the door and through the fire. They didn’t have time to get any clothes. They had to run through the fire with what they had on. One of my kids was clutchin’ on to my neck, all of them were screamin’. We heard other people screamin’, too, but we couldn’t see anybody else at first. The flames must’ve been sixty feet high, rollin’ through the building. We made it down the stairs and started runnin’ away from our building. I was running as fast as I could, holdin’ on to two of my kids with each hand while my baby held on to my neck. My wife was behind me, holdin’ on to our other child. I thought we were all goin’ to die, but we made it across the street to the parking lot of the church where other people were standing. When we stopped, I looked back and saw this big ball of fire. It was and it still is one of my worst nightmares, and I have more than a few. I knew it was goin’ to happen sooner or later. Even now, several years later, if I ask my daughters, ‘What do you think about when you think about Kennedy Homes?’ They will tell me ‘the fire.’” ************ The headlines in the October 6, 2003 edition of the Gainesville Sun read: “KENNEDY HOMES DAMAGED BY EARLY MORNING FIRE A fire broke out in a second floor apartment at Kennedy Homes early Monday morning, damaging 8 apartments and leaving several families without a home in a complex that has been the source of complaints by residents and city officials for years. Residents were awakened by alarms and by police and firefighters going door-to-door to rouse residents, who saw flames and smoke pouring from apartments in the D Building at the complex. One resident was overheard to tell another, “Don’t cry. It’s just stuff. The Lord got you out of there. The Lord was there for you.” Kennedy Homes has become a controversial complex because of the disrepair of apartments there. Problems have included rat infestations, poor plumbing, falling ceilings and other issues. Local and federal agencies have stepped in to try to make the company that owns the complex bring it up to standards.” *********** The fire investigator within the Gainesville Fire Department assigned to investigate the fire arrived at the scene within an hour of receiving a call shortly after midnight on the night of the fire. His report included the following: “Cause of Fire: Accidental Day and Date: Monday, October 6, 2003 Owner: AIMCO Management Fire Cause: Electrical, arc/spark Overview: This was a fire that occurred in a two story multi-unit apartment building. The fire was confined to the second story. Extensive damage occurred throughout the entire building either from the fire or fire suppression efforts. Eleven fire apparatus responded to this scene. One firefighter was transported to a local hospital, treated for heat exhaustion and released. All occupants of this building were displaced. The complex owner, AIMCO, with the assistance of the local Red Cross chapter, found alternative living arrangements for the displaced occupants. No occupants of this property were injured during this incident. Fire Investigation: This is an apartment complex that is designed as a four quad site with each respective quad being designated as Building A, B, C or D. Each quad contains multiple buildings, either three or four sides to each building. The fire building is located in Quad D which consists of three connecting buildings. The fire building is approximately 7500 square feet total area. Each apartment is approximately 900 square feet in size. This apartment complex was constructed in 1968. The buildings are cement and brick, two story, shingle roof, multi-unit buildings with a common attic space. The apartments are accessed via a finished open balcony that runs the length of the building. All ingress/egress points are on one side of the building onto the balcony. An open stairwell is located at the end of each building. There are no fire suppression appliances located within the buildings other than hand-held ABC fire extinguishers. Each unit has a single station, hard-wired, battery operated smoke detector. At 0157 hours on October 6, 2003 I was paged to respond to this scene to conduct an investigation of this fire incident. I arrived on-scene at 0236 hours and reported to the command center where I met with the Fire Inspector. We went to the fire building and observed that fire suppression activities were still in progress and we would be unable to access the building at that time. I made contact with the complex manager and requested that all occupants of the fire building be assembled at the complex office. As the occupants were located and made available, interviews were conducted. Some of the residents had left the complex and were unavailable for interview. The Inspector and I began on scene examination by identifying and securing the window air conditioner units from apartments D-31 and D-32. Both of these units were removed from the balcony to the ground by firefighters during the fire scene overhaul operations. The fire building and debris were isolated with fire scene tape to keep the area secure. A Gainesville Police Department officer was stationed in the common area as scene security. Based on interviews with the witnesses and first arriving fire personnel, it was determined that the area of fire origin was thought to be in the second floor apartment, D-32. A preliminary visual examination was conducted of each apartment from the balcony to assess the extent of fire damage. Apartments D-31 and D-32 were the most heavily damaged of all involved apartments. I observed a 4 inch galvanized pipe gas main running north to south down the middle of the attic. This pipe was sagging due to the intense heat it had been exposed to. Within each apartment, an approximately 1 and a half inch galvanized pipe was connected to the gas main by an isolation valve. The pipe was reduced to a copper service line which connected to the gas main by an isolation valve. This pipe was reduced to a copper service line which connected to the gas operated appliances within each apartment. In apartment D-31 the 1 and a half inch pipe was found to be separated from the gas main. The isolation valve that connected this pipe to the main pipe was found to be melted. The valve is manufactured from a soft metal alloy and was unable to withstand the heat generated by this fire. The gas pipe connections to the furnaces and hot water heaters failed during this fire. This type of failure is common to an intense fire and is not generally the result of improper connections. It is this fire investigator’s opinion that the failure of the gas line connections supplied this fire with natural fuel during the peak of the fire. This resulted in greater intensity of the fire and the subsequent heavy fire damage. The gas continued to supply fuel to this fire until the main gas valve was turned off by fire suppression personnel. A Gainesville Regional Utility service technician responded to the scene and insured that the gas supply was secured. He locked and tagged the gas service in the off position. Fire patterns indicated that the fire started in D-32 and extended into the attic space. The roof was completely consumed by fire in apartments D-31 and D-32. Once in th