Alaska residents flee apartment building stairwell fire

At least a dozen Mountain View residents escaped without injury through the windows of their three-story apartment building early Friday morning after someone lit a fire in the stairwell, according to the Anchorage Fire Department.

The 4 a.m. fire at 3209 Peterkin Ave. did not damage the building’s six units but they are uninhabitable because the stairway was destroyed, said Bridget Bushue, division chief for the Fire Department.

She said the fire consumed the first 2½ flights of stairs, causing roughly $15,000 to $20,000 in damage.

A dozen fire trucks and other vehicles arrived about three minutes after one of the building occupants reported the fire at 4:33 a.m., Bushue said.

“People were already climbing out windows when we got there,” she said. Firefighters rescued the rest with ladders.

She said the good news is that the building’s smoke detectors worked. “That’s what woke people up,” she said.

The building’s owner, Dan Hollingsworth, could not immediately be reached for comment.

West Coast 911 firefighting news source - Anchorage Daily News