Questions, answers to condo fire: Insurance company to determine access to site of fire

John Howell
Posted 3/19/15

Questions continue to swirl, and reports differ, over the lack of water to fight the fire that destroyed Building C of the Westgate Condominium on March 11 and why the remains of the building were so …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Questions, answers to condo fire: Insurance company to determine access to site of fire

Posted

UPDATE: The following was released by a spokesperson at Churchill & Banks Thursday afternoon.

The Westgate Condominium Association and Churchill & Banks have been working diligently with Liberty Mutual Insurance and the city and state fire officials. The site has been turned over to Liberty Mutual Insurance while the important investigation continues. While neither Churchill & Banks or the Condominium Association have access to the site, we are happy to interface with owners and the insurance company on the eventual retrieval of personal property when it is deemed allowable by the insurance company.

Original article continues below.

Questions continue to swirl, and reports differ, over the lack of water to fight the fire that destroyed Building C of the Westgate Condominium on March 11 and why the remains of the building were so quickly leveled.

On Sunday, Mayor Scott Avedisian had hoped to have answers, including the cause of the fire by Wednesday. It now appears it will be at least a couple of days before the state fire marshal releases a report.

Avedisian said yesterday a number of victims offered to give their stories and that information along with photographs have been helpful in the investigation.

Meanwhile, victims of the fire continue to gather at the site in hopes of gaining access to the rubble that was once Building C and is now behind a fence. Thirty-eight condos were lost in the fire, displacing about 100 people. Fortunately, everyone escaped the fire without injury. Now many of those survivors want to see if they can recover anything.

“I don’t understand why it had to be taken down so quickly,” said Mac Odom, whose first floor apartment on the south end of the building survived much of the fire that swept through the two floors above it.

“What really was upsetting for me is that it was mostly intact,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “I could see the pictures on my wall.”

He was outside the building when firefighters using axes started smashing the windows to get in.

“I told them to use the door. It was open,” he said.

That was at about 5:30 p.m. He said he was denied access, although at that time the fire was out and firefighters were tracking down hot spots. By the next morning a crane was on site, pulling apart sections of the building and stacking the remains in a gigantic pile.

“How do you find where it started from that?” asked Jennifer Valle, who lived at the other end of the building on the third floor. She hopes to find her fireproof safe in the rubble.

At Sunday’s meeting for victims at the Buttonwoods Community Center, Chief Edmund Armstrong said he made the decision to level the remains of the building for “safety reasons.”

In response to questions emailed the chief and mayor, Avedisian writes: “The Chief deemed the property as unsafe. The fire was still burning until early the next morning and demolishing the building was central to putting out the fire.”

Some people at the Sunday meeting speculated that Churchill & Banks, the company retained by the condominium association to manage the property, had something to do with the demolition.

Patti Doyle, spokeswoman for the company, said Tuesday the company had nothing to do with the action, “Nor were we consulted.”

In a call yesterday afternoon, Avedisian said control of the scene of the fire is being turned over to the insurance company retained by the condominium association, and it will be up to them whether and when people will be permitted on the site.

Doyle also addressed questions about the booster pressure pump owned by the condo association and designed to pressure water feeding the four hydrants on the property. A lack of water has been identified as the major reason why firefighters were unable to contain the blaze that raced through the roof and third floor of the building. The pump, pipes connecting the hydrants and the hydrants are tied into the Kent County Water Authority but are in fact a separate “private” system.

Water authority director Timothy Brown said Tuesday that the authority plays no role in servicing or checking that system. He could not say when the pump was serviced or whether it had been replaced since the complex was built in 1976. Plans provided at that time call for a pump capable of pumping 1,000 gallons a minute.

Brown said an authority employee was at the property in the early stages of the fire and that the “maintenance man was frantic” because the pump wasn’t working.

Doyle refutes that story. She said the pump overheated; that it was shutoff briefly, but that it came back on after it was cooled by pouring water on it. She said maintenance unlocked the pump house that is near the complex entrance to give access to Warwick firefighters.

Doyle assured the pump had been inspected and that “everything was up to code.” The city is pursuing the issue of responsibility for the booster pump.

“We are awaiting answers from the condominium association and/or Churchill and Banks as to who operates their pumps, when the pumps are tested, and if the pumps supply domestic power only or if they supply domestic and hydrant power.  To date, our letters to the condominium association and Churchill and Banks have gone unanswered,” the mayor said in an email.

What remains a mystery to Brown is what happened to the hydrant at the intersection of Major Potter Road and Quaker Lane, which firefighters turned to when the complex hydrants couldn’t meet demand. A police officer on site at the time of the fire told the Beacon that a car had driven over a charged hose and that yanked it off the hydrant, incapacitating it. Had that happened, water would have been jetted out of the hydrant.

Brown heard that the hose hadn’t been charged when it became wrapped in the wheel of a car, pulling out the hydrant port. Had that happened, presumably the car would have been forced to stop and firefighters would have recovered the hose and the hydrant port attached to it.

Responding to a question asked of the mayor and chief about the incident, Avedisian wrote, “A woman drove her car over the hose, damaging the coupling on the hose and the port on the hydrant. That rendered the hydrant useless. Chief Armstrong is working with the Police Department on the incident report of this accident.”

Also, at question is why firefighters did not use a hydrant opposite the complex on the west side of Quaker Lane. That hydrant is fed by a 24 inch main that was installed after the complex was built. Reports at the scene were that the four lanes of Quaker Lane would have had to be closed to traffic.

In his email Avedisian writes: “We utilized the closest hydrants to the scene. The fact that Kent County had a larger pump on the West Warwick side of the street was not something that the Warwick Fire Department was made aware of.”

It is unclear, too, as to how many apparatus failed to operate at the scene. The Beacon was told an engine was seen leaking water, and at Monday’s City Council meeting Department of Public Works mechanics were commended for having worked on equipment at the fire by Municipal Employees Union President Scott Small. Reports received by the Beacon vary from two engines or an engine and a ladder failed.

Mayor Avedisian provided the following information yesterday: “Ladder 3 had a hydraulic line that malfunctioned during the fire. We put that truck out of service and utilized our other vehicles that were on site. Three mechanics from the Department of Public Works went to the site to fix Ladder 3. I believe that these are the workers that Scott Small was referencing. Ladder 3 was back online an hour later. One pumper was not operating at full capacity for a few minutes at the very beginning but was brought back online quickly.”

As for the cause of the fire, Doyle said she didn’t want to speculate. “I want to see what the report says.”

She confirmed that Rhode Island Property Management was working on the third floor of Building C. This jibes with the account of residents that workmen carrying ladders told them there was a fire and to get out.

Doyle could not say whether the work crew was using space heaters to dry out walls damaged by leaks caused by ice dams on the roof. As reported Tuesday, a workman for Rhode Island Property Management told the Beacon he had opened the wall up in February because of the leaks and sealed it with plastic.

Asked about the water supply in the area, Brown said that because of elevation static pressure can be low but “there’s tremendous volume.”

Eventually, firefighters tied into a hydrant in the Spencer Woods condominium complex on Major Potter Road. As it turns out, Kent County Water took a meter reading at 8:31 the morning of the fire. At about the same time the day after the fire they took another reading. Brown said 250,000 gallons of water had been used.

Comments

1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here

  • TheDeal

    Windows would not broken to gain access in place of an open door. Windows are broken in order to vent heat and smoke. Firefighters are very conscious of causing no undue damage, it is just the nature of the work that in order to save more of the building, time does not allow for an overly gentle approach. It's a cost vs reward analysis that every good fire leader weighs at each fire. I certainly understand the resident questioning the process as it can seem destructive to the layperson.

    Thursday, March 19, 2015 Report this