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MIDVALE -- A two-alarm fire gutted the clubhouse and storage area of an apartment complex in Midvale early Thursday morning.
Police next door noticed flames shooting through the roof and alerted firefighters to the problem at 8000 S. Main St. (700 W.) around 3:45 a.m. At one point flames leapt 30 feet into the air.
Several residents saw the flames as well. Judy, who was awake at the time, said the she saw "the explosion, and the smoke and everything go up. We knew it was bad."
Ben Sharer of the Unified Fire Authority said when firefighters arrived, half of a building containing storage and a clubhouse was consumed in flames.
"Fortunately the building's kind of off on its own. We weren't really worried about it catching any neighboring buildings on fire or anything like that," Sharer said. "Smoke is always a concern but we were fortunate in that there was nobody living inside the building."
The fire was far enough away from the apartment buildings that no one was evacuated.
The front of the building that burned was a typical apartment complex clubhouse. The back was a garage-type storage area that includes about 10 or 12 individual storage units for tenants and a storage area for maintenance supplies, like sinks and stoves.
"We had no idea it was actually our storage units, our office that was on fire," said resident Michael Bowes.
Though the flames did not destroy the units, like they did the leasing office and workout room. But because the roof collapsed almost entirely, the units did get soaked in water and covered in smoke.
"There was a lot of black soot, everything is water damaged. We lost pretty much everything that was in there," said resident Kristen Cahen.
Investigators believe the fire started inside maintenance storage area.
"The fire went into the attic, through the attic it was able to get over the clubhouse area. There's a lot of smoke damage in the clubhouse. The garage area is burned up," Sharer said. "The building is probably a total loss."
Damage is estimated at $100,000, according to firefighters.
No one was injured. Investigators are looking for what caused the fire, but they don't believe that it is suspicious. They think it is more likely that something went wrong with the equipment stored there.
Story written with information from: Shara Park and Pat Reavy .
