2 families homeless after fire destroys apartment building

Community effort underway to raise money, collect clothing and household items

By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times

Ken Smith/Turnagain Times A Girdwood firefighter sprays the charred remnants of an apartment building on DeEtte Circle. The cause of the fire is suspected to be embers from a charcoal grill on the second floor balcony.

Ken Smith/Turnagain Times One vehicle was destroyed during a major blaze that burned down an apartment duplex on DeEtte Circle in Girdwood, Saturday, July 11. Trees on the property also caught fire, but firefighters were able to contain the fire within the property boundary.

An apartment building on DeEtte Circle in Girdwood was completely destroyed by a fire early Saturday morning, July 11.
Two families were living in the duplex, including two young girls and an 8-week-old infant. Nobody was injured, but a family cat perished.
Debbie and Don Davis, own the building and live next door on a hillside overlooking it.
Don said his wife was up early and saw smoke and flames coming from the building and called 911.
“I went down and knocked on the door and made sure everybody was getting out, which they were doing,” Davis said. “There was a lot of smoke, but not terribly involved at that time. But it wasn’t long after that when the fire started spreading pretty fast.”
The 911 call was received at 6:14 a.m. and Girdwood fire trucks were on scene by 6:28 a.m.
“When we arrived, the fire was fully engulfed, and the building was 80 percent involved,” said Bill Chadwick, Girdwood Fire Chief. “My incident commander called it a defensive operation, which the objective was to protect adjacent structures and to keep the fire from spreading into the woods. Probably our biggest victory there was preventing the fire from spreading up the hillside. It’s very dry and there’s a lot of beetle kill up there.”
Ash from the fire was reported falling as far as Timberline Drive, about a mile-and-a-half away.
Six emergency vehicles from Girdwood and Anchorage responded. There are no fire hydrants in the area, so a tender truck had to haul water to the fire.
“The occupants were woken by the smoke and smoke alarm, and windows starting to blow out from the intense heat,” said Senior Captain, Matt Olson, one of the incident commanders.
Ryan and Dena Zacher and their 8-week-old child were the tenants of one of the apartments, and Steve and Laura Evans, who have two girls ages 11 and 13, lived in the other apartment.
The cause of the fire is suspected to be from a charcoal grill that was used for cooking on a second floor balcony, but the investigation is ongoing.
“One of the families was grilling last night,” said Olson, “and some hot embers were left over.”
In addition to the building being destroyed, one of the tenants’ vehicles caught fire.
Davis, 64, said there are seven smoke alarms in each apartment. Davis is a 32-year resident of Girdwood. He built the building 12 years ago and said it is insured with an assessed value of $450,000.
The two families lost everything in the fire.
“One renter is a musician and lost all of his instruments,” Davis said.
A fundraiser was held at Maxine’s restaurant in Girdwood on Monday, July 13 from 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Clothing and household items were donated, and money was collected from a $10 cover charge with live entertainment provided by local musicians.
The families are temporarily staying in rooms at The Hotel Alyeska.
Donations and money are being accepted at Maxine’s Glacier City Bistro on Crow Creek Road.