newsminer.com

FAIRBANKS — The identity of a woman found unconscious in her smoke-filled Northward Building apartment Tuesday evening, and who died despite efforts of emergency medical treatment at the scene, has not yet been publicly named, pending notification of next of kin.

Fairbanks Fire Marshal Ernie Misewicz also reported that a cause of death had not been received from the medical examiners office in Anchorage as of Wednesday afternoon.

Fairbanks Fire Department responded to a smoke alarm activation shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday at the eight-story apartment building located between Third and Fourth avenues and Lacey and Noble streets.

According to a fire department news release, a woman returning home to her fifth-floor apartment Tuesday evening smelled smoke in the hallway and a smoke detector sounding in a nearby apartment. She called 911 and activated the building’s fire alarm system, which started evacuation of the entire building.

Fire crews responded about four minutes later and initiated a “high-rise fire operation” carrying a hose and deploying it down the hallway.

Firefighters entered the smoke-filled apartment and found and removed the unconscious woman. Efforts to revive her were unsuccessful.

The dense smoke was caused by a pot of beans on the kitchen stove.

On Wednesday, Misewicz praised the fast action of the building occupants, many of whom are disabled, who responded to alarms and helped each other out.

“The owners of JL Properties, their staff and security were instrumental in getting people out of there,” he said.

Mutual aid was called in from area fire departments.

An engine company from the North Star Volunteer Fire Department, Steese Area VFD and the University Fire Department responded, as well as a ladder company from Fort Wainwright.

All the crews worked together to ensure occupants got out safely and cleared the building of smoke, Misewicz said.

Tenants waited patiently for almost two hours outside the building and were updated periodically on what was going on before being allowed to re-enter around 11 p.m., Misewicz said.

The Northward Building, built in 1951, was dubbed the “Ice Palace” as described in novelist Edna Ferber’s book of the same name, set in Alaska.

In 1956, there was a fire fatality, and two women suffered broken backs from jumping into fire safety nets from the high-rise.

According to Misewicz, the last big fire in the Northward Building occurred in the mid-1980s when someone set a fire in an eighth-floor hallway.

“It trapped some people in their apartments, and they had to be rescued (by fire ladders) from their windows.

“Since that time, we’ve worked with building owners with improving some safety features of the building,” Misewicz said, adding, “The building is up to the city fire code.”