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Shelley Osterloh ReportingSome of the residents of the Shadow Ridge Condominiums were allowed back into their homes today to see what they could salvage. Fire raced through their building yesterday afternoon.
One woman jumped out a window to escape the fire. She broke both feet, but is expected to recover.
She and others who were home when the fire broke out at about 3: 40 yesterday afternoon were lucky to get out alive; it was apparently a fast moving fire. It gutted the mid-section of the 24 unit building.
Yesterday, we watched as shocked residents returned to see their place on fire. We saw one woman reunited with one of her two cats after it was resuscitated by medical workers. This morning she returned to see what was left of her condo, and had some good news about the other cat.
Jacy Jacobsen: "He was trapped in the bed he crawled up in the bed and was hiding. I was just begging them to go back and look. I said, ‘here's where he hides, I know he's there,' and he was there."
Not everyone was so lucky. Vince and Lindsey Vega returned this morning, hoping to find their cat. They lost nearly everything in the fire.
Vince and Lindsey Vega: "Just my cat, everything in there is replaceable, but he's not."
This morning, Fire investigators were on the scene. They say the fire likely started in the attic or a third floor storage closest, but aren't sure what ignited the blaze.
Three firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, said Salt Lake County sheriff's Lt. Robby Russo.
The building was left with a collapsed roof in some areas and the top two floors were charred in the center. The walls of some units were burned away.
The fire caused an estimated $1 million to $2 million. The cause had not been determined but was not considered suspicious, said Capt. Jay Torgerson of the Unified Fire Authority.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)
