Kennewick Fire prepares for apartment fire prevention campaign

KENNEWICK, Wash.-- With more than 800 duplexes and apartment complexes in the city of Kennewick, fire officials are concerned about a recent up-tick in the number of fires in multi-family dwellings.

In September 2019, a deck fire caused extensive damage to an apartment building at On The Boulevard on Gage Blvd., displacing the residents in eight units.

In July 2020, an apartment fire left a man in his fifties with extensive burns, and caused about $250,000 dollars in damage.

Kennewick Fire Chief Chad Michael said it helps when apartment buildings are equipped with sprinklers.

"The apartment complex that had the fire that was non-sprinklered resulted in about $250,000 of damage," Chief Michael said. "We did have one person that suffered severe injuries that was treated locally and then transferred to Harborview Medical Center for additional treatment. You compare that with the fire with the sprinkler, we had $2,500 dollars worth of damage, and that was able to be reoccupied in 24 hours."

The agency plans to start an educational campaign next year to focus on apartment fire prevention. The top causes for fires in apartments include cooking, heaters, unattended candles and smoking materials, arson, and electrical issues, most of which are preventable.

"We're going to make a very concerted effort to get out to all of our apartment complexes in the city of Kennewick and work very closely with the owners of the apartments, landlords to make sure that we provide materials for tenants that are coming into apartments so they can understand what the risk is," Michael said.

He offers some simple tips for preventing all residential fires:

• Check to ensure that smoke alarms are working properly
• Sleep with your bedroom door closed (Close While You Doze)
• Properly discard cigarettes
• Keep flammable items away from baseboard and space heaters
• Be attentive to food while cooking
• Never leave candles lit and unsupervised
• In the event of a fire, close doors behind you as you evacuate
• Stay outside of the house or apartment once you have evacuated, and wait for firefighters

Chief Michael says during 2021, the agency wants to focus on apartment fire prevention because the  fires place a greater number of lives at risk when compared to a single-family home, but all the same fire safety rules apply to single-family structures.