On Tuesday, Feb. 4, a fire broke out at the Villa Madre apartment complex. While the damage was minor, some of its residents were displaced.
According to Fire Marshal John Sandoval, the Port Isabel Fire Department was initially dispatched to unit 105. When the team arrived, they discovered the real fire was in a unit above 105.
“There was a lot of smoke damage and the fire spread. But it was pretty much contained to a single unit,” said Sandoval.
Nobody was injured during the fire, but the entire building was evacuated for safety precautions. Sandoval reported that the team did recover a chihuahua trapped in the burning unit.
“We had no idea the dog was inside the building,” said Sandoval.
It wasn’t until a resident returned to the apartment and told the team about the dog that they searched for them. Luckily, the dog was given oxygen and came out unharmed.
The fire went on for roughly an hour. According to Sandoval, it was a smoldering fire between the ceiling and roofline, which made targeting it difficult. The fire department shut down all power to the building, as per protocol.
Sandoval says the lack of light paired with the blackout curtains in the room and the abundance of heavy smoke made the smoldering fire especially difficult to extinguish. The team used their thermal imaging camera to identify the problem areas.
“Usually when we have a major fire, there’s an actual flame and we know where to go. In this case, we relied solely on the thermal imagery camera,” said Sandoval.
According to Sandoval, a smoldering fire is similar to hot coals after a barbeque. There is no blaze, but there is a lot of heat that can be dangerous if not immediately extinguished. Because the fire was between the ceiling and roofline, it spread extensively throughout the mostly wooden building. The thermal imagery camera identified where the problem areas were, and the fire team tore out parts of the ceiling to extinguish it.
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