Shivering families stepped over the yellow tape that chalked the outline of
their destroyed apartment complex. They’d come to claim what was left of their belongings inside, but there would not be much. Whatever the fire didn’t take, looters
Raghavendra Tepojo stood in the snow outside the charred Incline Terrace apartment building, listening to the sound of a boy crying about his lost Christmas presents. The business graduate student lived on the fourth floor with several roommates, until a
Saturday morning fire took it all away. The apartment complex was home to at
least several U students, but two hours after firefighters arrived to put
out the flames, all that’s left at 1044 East 400 South is a burnt shell.
“It really sucks. We lost so much,” Tepojo said.
At 12:20 a.m., more than 100 firefighters responded to a fire at The Incline
Terrace Apartments. Resident Emmitt Bankster said he was one of the first to notice something was burning. He kicked open the door to a room on the sixth floor to see its balcony curtains ablaze. He tried to put out the spreading flames with a hose, but to no avail.
Scott Freitag, spokesman for Salt Lake City Fire Department, said the fire was likely caused by a collection of discarded cigarette butts on the sixth floor. The wind that was blowing in the night’s impending snowstorm likely spread the cigarettes’ flames to other materials and caused the catastrophe, he said.
Although the firefighters were able to mostly contain the blaze to the sixth
floor, the lower floors were damaged by water and smoke. The damage to the
complex is estimated around $1.5 million. The complex’s adjacent building,
Building B, is safe enough for residents to return.
However, those who called Building A home aren’t so lucky. They’ve sought
refuge with friends, family or the temporary shelter that the American Red
Cross set up at a nearby meeting house for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It will likely be a year before the residents of Building A can return to the restored building.
Tepojo said that he and his three roommates are staying with friends until they can find a new apartment to live in. They not only lost their home, but looters made off with all of the valuables the fire didn’t affect, including a gold ring studded with nine stones that Tepojo said is worth at least $800. He said he also hopes Santa has a new Playstation 3 for him this Christmas.
Rameshwer Karingala, a mechanical engineering graduate student, said that the looting wasn’t isolated to Building A of the apartment complex, which suffered the most fire damage. Looters also ransacked the adjacent Building B, he said.
“And you know what makes it worse,” Tepojo said. “I have finals next week