Fire Forces 108 To Start From Scratch Cavanaugh’S Offers Temporary Shelter; Red Cross Provides Food And Aid For Homeless

For residents of the Fairmont Apartments, Friday’s dawn came with clanging fire bells.

They started out of bed, reaching for their shoes. Then some relaxed.

“I wasn’t too worried at first,” said Larry Lutz. “I thought it was a false alarm.”

But then he caught the Fairmont’s reflection in the windows of the building across the street. Flames were shooting into the sky.

“I figured I’d better not wait to have a cup of coffee,” Lutz said.

Downtown sidewalks filled as alarms sounded and firefighters went door to door, emptying the 97-room building, home to 108 people.

Some fled in their nightshirts. Others clutched pets. They left behind false teeth, heart medications, heirlooms, wedding pictures.

None brought more than a change of clothes. Like Lutz, they expected to be back in bed soon.

But by the end of a long day, they’d be sleeping in hotel rooms, wearing strangers’ clothes, forced to start over without so much as their toothbrushes.

As flames danced from the Fairmont’s roof, Maria Chapman clutched her pregnant daughter, her face stricken.

Jerry Hayes hunched in his wheelchair. He left behind his prosthetic leg, dentures and glasses.

“I’m devastated,” said Hayes, a 57-year-old Vietnam veteran who lost his leg in the war.

Dozens of residents interviewed Friday lacked renter’s insurance. Their loss was complete.

American Red Cross volunteers handed out blankets, coffee and doughnuts to the stunned evacuees. The fire burned hotter.

Behind the scenes, the company that manages the Fairmont, G&B Real Estate Services, planned for the worst.

By 10 a.m., they’d arranged for emergency shelter in the Glacier Room of Cavanaugh’s Fourth Avenue motel.

Diamond Parking Inc., which owns the Fairmont, picked up the tab to put them in rooms at the Fourth Avenue and Ridpath Hotel. Sixty residents accepted the offer; the remainder stayed with friends or family.

“We just feel like it’s the right thing to take care of our tenants,” said Dan Geiger, a vice president for Seattle-based Diamond.

The Red Cross estimates it will spend $100,000 to help the residents recover and provide their meals through the weekend.

As more than 100 displaced residents ate breakfast, case workers from social service agencies took down vital information, figuring out how to get them help fast.

Many needed emergency prescriptions for heart or asthma medications. Social workers brought in canes and eyeglasses. One hunted for a replacement leg for Hayes.

Several Spokane landlords stopped by to offer aid. Wells & Co. said it would waive deposits and two months’ rent.

While many downtown hotels are filled with the poor and elderly, the Fairmont’s residents largely are working class. Many work at service industry or manufacturing jobs. Rents ranged from $325 to $460 a month.

Others, like Millie Sommers, 78, live on Social Security.

“It’s just me and what I have on,” said Sommers. “It’s going to be light moving.”

The biggest loss, she said, was a 20-year-old photo of her husband, now deceased, who was reclining on a sunny deck and smiling.

A tremendous pile of donated clothes grew in a corner of the Glacier Room. In one corner of the room, a child watched a Disney cartoon on TV. A group of people joked about missing out on a marshmallow roast.

Then Spokane Fire Chief Bobby Williams walked in.

No one would be able to visit their apartments until Monday, he said.

“It’s going to be months and months before anyone’s going to be living in the Fairmont again,” Williams told the shocked crowd. “I know it’s hard to hear, but I want to be honest with you.”

Exhaustion and frustration set in.

Residents slipped away for naps. Lutz dug through the pile of clothes, looking for a short-sleeved white shirt and gray slacks to wear to his job today at SeaFirst Financial Center.

For Chapman, the generosity was “overwhelming.” But what she wanted most wasn’t in the clothes pile.

Her daughter’s scrapbook with a poem that won a national prize for elementary schoolers was lost. So was a stuffed kangaroo named Casey - Chapman’s good luck charm.

“It’s the little irreplaceable things,” she said. “The things that break your heart.”

HOW TO HELP DONATIONS SOUGHT The American Red Cross is coordinating aid for the displaced residents of the Fairmont Apartments. Cash donations can be made through the red cross office, 315 W. Nora, or at Seafirst bank branches. Credit card donations can be made by calling (509) 326-3330. The Salvation Army, 222 E. Indiana, is requesting towels, washcloths, blankets, undergarments, dishes, pots and pans and silverware for Fairmont residents. Donations must be clean and new. Food donations can be made through the Spokane Food Bank.