After fire, delay not disaster

An early morning fire, and the explosions it sparked, destroyed Gonzaga University’s unfinished Kennedy Apartment complex Monday morning, but it could have been worse, the Rev. Robert Spitzer said.

No one was injured. Fewer students were in the area because the university is on spring break. Winds were calm, so the fire did not spread beyond the one-block construction site. The project is insured.

“If it had to happen … ” Spitzer, the university president, said at midmorning while fire crews continued to shoot streams of water into the smoldering debris. “We’ll move beyond it. We can recover.”

The $10.4 million complex at the western edge of the GU campus was scheduled to open in the fall and house 225 juniors and seniors in 75 apartment units. The university expects to start demolishing what’s left of the structure this week, Spitzer said, and hopes to have the housing complex open for fall 2007.

“It will be built, just a year later,” he said.

School officials were already discussing extending the current agreement with the Red Lion River Inn to house some students and could find space for others in existing dorms. Remaining students would live off-campus, as many students now do.

The fire was reported just after midnight. It apparently started in the southeast end of the three-building, U-shaped complex and spread rapidly in the exposed lumber being used in the construction of the 160,000-square-foot housing project.

Fire Chief Bobby Williams called the site “a vertical lumber yard.”

Sandy Fujiwara, a Gonzaga senior who lives in the university’s Dussault Apartments a block to the south, said she and her roommates weren’t leaving for spring break until Monday morning. They were snacking on chips, salsa and root beer floats about midnight, when one roommate looked out a window, saw the flames and started shouting.

They quickly called 911.

“It happened really fast,” Fujiwara said. “We were standing on our balcony and we could feel the heat from the fire.”

The blaze lit up the north Spokane sky and quickly drew most of the city’s firefighting resources to the area near Boone and Ruby. Explosions, possibly from propane tanks used in the construction, could later be seen in some areas of the unfinished building.

“We’ve got better than three-quarters of the city’s resources on the scene,” Williams said about 1:30 a.m., after much of the southern and eastern buildings had collapsed.

Thirteen police officers, more than half of those on duty at the time, were assigned to traffic and crowd control.

It’s too soon to know the cause of the fire, Williams said.

Assistant Chief Brian Schaeffer said the investigation could be “extremely lengthy” because it involved several buildings and extensive damage. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives has been asked to help.

Firefighting efforts were hampered by the lack of a working sprinkler and fire suppression system within the incomplete apartments, said Williams. Crews could only spray water from the outside.

Spitzer said the sprinkler system had been installed, but had not yet been connected to a water supply.

Firefighters also kept a steady stream of water on two fuel tanks outside the buildings.

There were also some initial difficulties with water pressure because of the large amounts of water being used, Williams said.

Fires burned in various parts of the buildings and rubble throughout the morning as firefighters used a “defensive” strategy, pouring water from the outside rather than entering what was left of the buildings and risking injuries from further collapses.