Tulsa World: Blaze injures 4 seriously: Firefighters rescue trapped resident

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Blaze injures 4 seriously: Firefighters rescue trapped resident

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent looks through the burned-out remains of a second-story apartment Tuesday. Investigators say the fire was caused by a methamphetamine lab. DARYL WILSON/Tulsa World

By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 3/11/2009 2:24 AM
Last Modified: 3/11/2009 10:24 AM

Listen to a 911 call made by a resident who was trapped in her apartment during the fire, view a PDF of a Royal Arms Apartments fire report and see a map that depicts where Tulsa police have discovered meth labs since January 2008.

Related story: State is sticking to curbing meth.

A two-alarm meth-lab fire at an apartment complex early Tuesday seriously injured four people, including a woman who was not breathing when firefighters rescued her from her smoke-filled apartment.

After the dramatic rescue, emergency workers revived the woman, who had been trapped in the residence next door to the unit that contained the meth lab, Fire Department officials said. She was taken to St. Francis Hospital in critical condition, Capt. Michael Baker said.

Two other victims were listed in serious condition, and a fourth was in critical condition. Their names had not been released by Tuesday night.

The fire at the Royal Arms Apartments, 5132 S. Norfolk Ave., was Tulsa's second large fire that resulted from a meth lab in nine days. Last week, police evacuated several houses near 37th Place and Riverside Drive when someone apparently

set a meth lab ablaze in an attempt to conceal it from police.

Firefighters responded to the Royal Arms complex, which is just south of Interstate 44 between Riverside Drive and Peoria Avenue, about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Baker said.

Donna Leverette, whose home was protected by a fire wall, said she awoke to find the apartment manager and a firefighter pounding on her door.

"I walked out into the parking lot and the flames were shooting way up into the air, and the way that the wind was blowing, we knew they were all just going to be gone," Leverette said of the apartments.

She said she stood outside the burning building at a safe distance but close enough to feel the heat from the blaze as she watched firefighters stream water onto the fire from two sides.

"To be that close to it and to be fearful that your home was going to be included. You just stand there thinking that you can't believe that everything you own is going to go up in flames," Leverette said. "And the firemen were amazing."

Two people escaped from the burning building and were taken by ambulance to Hillcrest Medical Center.

But authorities learned that a 55-year-old woman was trapped in the apartment adjacent to the one where the fire started. Dispatcher Jeff Pestel, working at the Tulsa Fire Department's Alarm Office, stayed on the phone with the woman for more than 10 minutes as firefighters worked to get to her.

Pestel told her to check the door to see whether it was hot before she tried to leave her apartment.

Baker said: "The door was so hot when she touched it, she could not get out. So she stayed in her bedroom and got basically behind the bed and covered herself up with blankets and remained on the phone with the fire dispatcher the whole time.

"The fire dispatcher heard her progress from being able talk to him, and as she began to breathe in more and more smoke, she eventually went unconscious."

Firefighters from Engine 26 were assigned to search and rescue, Baker said.

The fire had burned the numbers off the apartments, making it hard to tell one unit from another.

"We knew what apartment she was in, but the fire had literally destroyed the tops of the doors and burned the doors off," Baker said.

"Initial reports are that they had to fight their way through some serious flames to get in there to get to her," Baker said. "She was on the floor in the back bedroom, not breathing, when they found her."

Fire Equipment Operator Chad Meyer picked her up and carried her through the flames to safety, Baker said.

Fire Department paramedics worked with EMSA crews to revive the woman, who was then taken to St. Francis.

A woman apparently drove the fourth fire victim to St. Francis Hospital, but she left before talking to police. The male victim had severe burns and was placed on respiratory support, Baker said.

Police released a picture of the woman that was taken by a hospital surveillance camera shortly after 4 a.m., Officer Leland Ashley said. They later said they had identified the woman but did not know her relationship to the burned man.

Tulsa Fire Department investigators and police arrived at the complex early to begin investigating. They determined that a meth lab in one of the second-story apartments caused the blaze, Baker said.

An eight-unit part of the apartment complex was severely damaged by fire and smoke. The top four units in the area were destroyed; the bottom four units had water damage after firefighters spent 40 minutes putting out the fire, Baker said.

But the way the apartments were constructed helped keep the flames from spreading further than they did, Baker said.

The apartments, constructed in the mid-1960s, have fire walls, he said. Fire walls are masonry structures that keep fires from spreading beyond them.

"The fire walls that separate the sections of the building kept it from burning the whole complex down," Baker said. "You literally have a burned side and an untouched side. The fire walls did exactly what they were designed to do."

The complex's management has set an initial damage estimate at $300,000.

Police say they have seen a sharp spike in the number of methamphetamine labs in the city, with 36 discovered in Tulsa this year, compared with 41 in all of 2008, Ashley said.

As Tuesday's fire progressed, the Fire Department sounded a second alarm because of the number of firefighters needed to rescue victims and assist with the evacuation. A total of 65 firefighters responded.

World staff writer Althea Peterson contributed to this story.

Nicole Marshall 581-8459
nicole.marshall@tulsaworld.com By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer

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Some reader comments for this story were copied from "Tulsa apartment fire caused by meth lab, officials say," which was published on 3/10/2009.

	Report Comment Skeptic, Tulsa (3/10/2009 8:38:40 AM) My best to those affected by this fire. I lived in that complex in the early 80's. At that time there were a lot of retired people there. It was a great place to live. I hope they can rebuild their lives and the complex.
	Report Comment SoCal Fan, Broken Arrow (3/10/2009 9:20:21 AM) <== Praying for you.
	Report Comment Few Clothes, Austin, TX (3/10/2009 10:09:18 AM) I guess the punks that assaulted them yesterday were still sleeping.
	Report Comment M_Conners, Tulsa (3/10/2009 10:49:30 AM) Yeah at least the firefighters were not assaulted this time. sheesh.
	Report Comment Mar, Tulsa (3/10/2009 10:53:02 AM) I hope the victims recover. I'm curious as to what started the fire. Also, I sure wish TW would quit changing their website format. I had just gotten use to the changes they made in December and now they changed the home page again, and with each change they make it more and more difficult to find articles, even now the current news, like this fire, which would have normally been on the home page, I had to hunt down. Gee whiz, TW, are you just trying to make people stop reading your online version of your newspaper?
	Report Comment Arbythree, Tulsa (3/10/2009 10:53:50 AM) Good work TFD! I was near there and it could have been much worse!! Thanks to all of the responders.
	Report Comment dwhitney, Tulsa (3/10/2009 11:00:31 AM) I am sick of hearing about these junkies burning down apartment cooking meth. The state need to sentence these people to life in prison for injuring and killing people living there.
	Report Comment Graybeard, Tulsa (3/10/2009 11:14:38 AM) Seems like we have one or two of these meth-related fires a week. Druggies are so stupid.....not only are they destroying their own lives, but they take the chance of killing innocent people. Plus there is the environmental impact and fire destruction. Prison is too good for 'em. Change the laws......NOW.
	Report Comment Mr. Mxyztplk, A Van, Down By The River (3/10/2009 11:35:52 AM) "Prison is too good for 'em. Change the laws......NOW." Prison ain't good! But that's beside the point. Enforce the laws. Now. Too many "cooks" get probation just from being so-in-so's father, brother, sister, mother and for turning at least one distributor. That is unless you can't afford a lawyer. Then it's jail for you. Change that, too. Now. And while we're at it, druggies aren't the only people that destroy other people's lives. Drunks do a fairly good job when they drive. Enforce that, too. And personally, after almost getting run-down in a cross walk by someone using a cell phone, enforce that, too. I'm with ya....only I go further with my rhetoric.
	Report Comment Grandmaof4, Owasso (3/10/2009 11:48:01 AM) This is the result of the laws that our legislature are reviewing. They don't like being high on the "put'em-in-jail" list. I for one believe that criminals start small and the more they get away with the more brazen they become. Meth today murder tomorrow. I would rather pay higher taxes than worry that some two-bit meth-head will kill one of my children. They are one the streets looking for victims for their next fix. They are driving around in cars putting unsuspecting law-abiding citizen at risk. All the bleeding hearts that don't believe that the drug world is a serious threat to everyone should sit with the family of an innocent victim while they are planning their funeral. Heaven forbid you get a call telling you your child has been killed by some drugged/drunk driver who had been arrested for the same thing on several occasions and put on probation.
	Report Comment sauerkraut, Columbus (3/10/2009 11:48:32 AM) Don't they do any background checks on their residents before they move in? What about criminal background checks at the very least? The place where I now live I had to clear a tuff background check from criminal to credit checks to having a secure job- being in that job for at least 8 months, or they won't approve you- The complex won't take in any people who have criminal records, no/poor employment history or questional backgrounds. The result is a good place to live with no rift-raft hanging around.
	Report Comment Gator, (3/10/2009 11:59:07 AM) I live here at the Royal Arms now,, have been a resident for over 5 years. Up till a year or so ago, this was a great place to live when it was under different ownership/management. New tenants were screened to the extreme back then. Now... they let anybody move in.. even methheads. Of course methlabs are popping up everywhere, where do go to get away from "the bad element".?
	Report Comment my view, Sand Springs (3/10/2009 12:37:03 PM) Gator, there is no place to run, meth is everywhere, in every neigborhood. As I understand it cooking meth can get 20 to life in prison. Lets hope the prosecutors don't plea these down.
	Report Comment FaithnHim, Crested Bute (3/10/2009 12:41:43 PM) Ok, so now that the cause has been determined when can we hope to see some arrests? Was that mentioned? Perhaps I missed it?
	Report Comment oak, (3/10/2009 12:57:04 PM) why i'm i not surprised
	Report Comment concernedpapa, Kiefer (3/10/2009 1:10:30 PM) my view I agree let's hope these types of criminals do some real time.
	Report Comment FaithnHim, Crested Bute (3/10/2009 1:18:56 PM) Using Meth and cooking are apparantly, much different, in terms of sentencing. My immediate family has seen a conviction for 'using' yet no prison time served. Nothing but probation. I still don't understand that. I would never want any family member to go to prison; but, if it means saving their life then so be it! It's crazy.
	Report Comment FaithnHim, Crested Bute (3/10/2009 1:45:06 PM) We tried 'counseling', 'therapy' etc...which seemed to work for a brief period. Unfortunately, the psychological issues that prompted the drug abuse in the first place resurfaced..anger management issues, drug use of different types and so on..At least with my family, the user is also very violent. Compound that with drugs (of any kind) and you have a problem for society.
	Report Comment USC BRYAN, TULSA (3/10/2009 1:50:36 PM) I live in that complex and if it hadn't been for an old reliable firewall we would have lost the entire west side of the complex. 8 units are completely gone and 4 lives may be changed by all of this. There is more to tell in all of this but the TPD and TFD will handle business and the people that are responsible for this wii get their just due. Just prey for all the residents and all affected.
	Report Comment FaithnHim, Crested Bute (3/10/2009 1:52:53 PM) Amen Bryan - Prayers abundant!!
	Report Comment Cooldaddy, Broken Arrow (3/10/2009 2:29:38 PM) Simply foolish to try and be cookin' up some meth. The stench alone is a dead give-away. Meth kills if you cook it or consume it.
	Report Comment Rocketman, Tulsa (3/10/2009 2:32:18 PM) This meth stuff is just nuts. I don't understand how a drug can take so much control over someone. I know several former addicts, they say there is no other high like it, heroin, cocaine, crack, alcohol - just do not compare to its high.
	Report Comment the original Ace, Tulsa (3/10/2009 2:45:49 PM) I am completely sick of these meth addicts destroying property, endangering innocent people, endangering our firemen, costing me money (taxes for firemen, trials, rehab etc). They are such a drain on society. We need stricter laws for the users and sellers. We need a zero tolerance for these incidents. I know that when I go for walks around my neighborhood that I look around for what I think might be a meth house. I know there is supposed to be a pungent aroma from the fumes. I'll call the police in a heartbeat if I suspect anything.
	Report Comment Popeye, T-Town (3/10/2009 3:00:57 PM) Methamphetamine, and all of it's assorted cousins, is the most addictive and destructive drug ever! Not only does it give you a high, it gives you a false sense of invincibility. Even worse, people high on it stay up for days and lose touch with reality. The cycle is endless. Whatever loophole these miserable creatures have found to get to the ingredients needs to be plugged and plugged quickly.
	Report Comment Mr. Mxyztplk, A Van, Down By The River (3/10/2009 3:02:43 PM) "Sounds kinda redneck doesn't it. Who cares. If I knew one of my neighbors was running a meth lab in his house I would torch it myself." Um...there are explosive and toxic elements in those labs. That "solution' would be kinda like what just happened: lab fire and fumes. Plus, if you wanna take on someone who's brains have been hole-ridden from all that cooking, at least warn the neighbors about the impending fire-fight so they can get someplace safe.

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