Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
WEST VALLEY CITY — Virginia Vega woke up Friday morning to someone pounding on her apartment door and a voice yelling for her family to evacuate.
"I was more shocked than anything. I was sound asleep and then you just wake up to hearing that there's a fire. You don't even know what to think," she said.
Shortly before 3 a.m., West Valley police officer Spencer Tanner spotted the fire while driving near the Shadowbrook Apartments, 3860 S. Redwood Road.
"I noticed that there wasn't a lot of people coming out of the building so I went up to the third floor and went into the apartment where the fire was and made sure everyone got out," he said.
Three West Valley officers and one officer in training worked to evacuate the residents.
"It was on the balcony and next thing I know, I look out and it's spreading across the whole entire building," said West Valley police officer Amanda Zeller. "Training just kicked in and we just started knocking on doors trying to get people out as quick as we could."
As the smoke built, the officers had to kick in some doors to wake people up and get them out of the building.
"Fortunately I was at the right place at the right time where we were able to let them know as soon as possible," Tanner said.
Fortunately I was at the right place at the right time where we were able to let them know as soon as possible.
–Spencer Tanner
Vega said she did not hear any fire alarm until after the blaze was extinguished.
"Which is kind of scary, because that is something that should go off as soon as the smoke, you know, but it was just weird we didn't hear it until after the fire was out," she said.
West Valley and Unified firefighters arrived within a few minutes of the call and extinguished the blaze within 30 minutes.
"It sounds like it was great timing for (police) to be there to start getting the people out," said West Valley Fire Capt. Scott Rekoutis.
The fire destroyed two apartment units and displaced 12 families Friday.
Twenty apartment units were originally evacuated. Two were destroyed and six others received severe smoke damage. An additional four families were displaced, according to Red Cross spokesman Rich Woodruff. Although their units were not directly affected, the apartment owner wanted to make sure there were no problems with gas or power before letting them back in.
Two officers were also treated for minor smoke inhalation.
Investigators were still trying to determine what caused the fire. They did not yet have a damage estimate.
Contributing: Nicole Vowell, Peter Samore
View Shadowbrook Apartments in a larger map
