Wilton apartment fire: Building saved, all evacuated

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On Feb. 20, an indoor fire started in the apartment building located at 207 East Wate Street in Wilton. An electric blanket caught fire in the downstairs Apartment A, and the resident called 911 for help at approximately 10:40 a.m. Wilton Police Chief Dave Clark was first on scene and immediately began evacuating the building.

There were many tenants inside the building at the time, including adults and children. Clark said he could see significant fire and smoke damage upon arrival, with some hallways inside the apartment covered in thick smoke with no visibility. Mike Smock, the apartment landlord, began helping Clark evacuate the building upon arrival.

Fire Chief Gary Devore and Assistant Chief Ray Sterner were first on scene from the Wilton Fire Department and were able to contain the fire until more help arrived. The following departments also responded: Durant Fire Department, West Liberty Fire Department, Atalissa Fire Department, Bennett Fire Department, the Durant Ambulance, the Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office and the Wilton Police Department.

“Everybody knew exactly what to do. If they (the different area departments) wouldn’t of shown up as fast as they did, the building could have been completely gone,” Clark said.

No fatal injuries resulted from the fire; however, three children who were in an upstairs apartment, were checked and treated for very minor smoke inhalation. The apartment fire displaced the 12 families who reside at that location to a temporary shelter at the Wilton Fire Department set up by the Salvation Army. The Salvation Army also set up another temporary shelter at its Muscatine location. In addition to the temporary shelters, the Salvation Army offered many other services to the residents effected by the fire; such as helping them go to Walmart and buy new clothes.

The Red Cross arrived at the fire station to provide the families with additional help, and gave vouchers to families to cover the cost of hotel stays. Some families chose to stay with family members while the apartment building was being cleaned, while others took advantage of the hotel vouchers.

“I was impressed with all the first responders. As bad as it was, it could have been way worse. It was pretty humbling the amount of community support we got,” Clark stated.

After the fire, Clark made a long post on the Wilton PD Facebook page. In it, he said he had fielded many questions in reference to the fire, as many in Wilton can relate to the building as it was a former college and has also been referred to as “the flats” over the years. “Nobody wants this to happen in any community but this could have been much, much worse. I could not be more proud to represent Wilton today,” Clark wrote.

Environmental Rehab came to the apartment building afterward and removed all the air to get rid of the lingering smoke. Some apartment tenants came back to their apartments Feb. 24. There is still a lot of cleaning that has to be done — some of the walls are still covered in soot and smoke residue.

Mike Smock owns the structure and said Servpro has also been on scene cleaning. He confirmed that all tenants are back in their apartments other than those in Apartment A where the fire started. Smock was in Wilton at the time of the fire and, as a member of the Atalissa Fire Department, got the page and was one of the first to arrive, where he helped the PD get people out of the building.

He said there are crawl spaces above several of the apartments, yet not above where the fire started. “Where the fire happened was in the best part it could have in the building due to not having access to a crawl space,” Smock said.

He also said that Sterner, who was one of the first to arrive from the Wilton Fire Department, was familiar with the building and its crawl spaces. “He knew there were crawl spaces throughout that building and that we had to get it under control. Otherwise we would have to just worry about other structures.”

Lastly, Smock noted that one of the tenants in the building did have renters insurance. “She’s getting treated well. It’s a good reminder to get renters insurance. It’s affordable and you just never know.” he said.

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