No injuries were reported but authorities said eight people were displaced Wednesday following a blaze that damaged several floors of Bethlehem Tower, one of the largest affordable housing complexes in Santa Rosa.<\/p>\n
Shorly after 3 p.m., fire crews responded to an alarm at the 15-story building, Santa Rosa Fire Division Chief and Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said.<\/p>\n
He added that after entering the structure at 801 Tupper St., firefighters found a unit burning on the 12th floor and upgraded the call to a second-alarm.<\/p>\n
This meant that because the property is a high-rise \u2014 one of the tallest in the North Bay \u2014 three Santa Rosa Fire Department ladder trucks were then dispatched to assist the 12 SRFD engines and multiple chief officers and emergency medical personnel already at the scene.<\/p>\n
Fire crews quickly contained the flames to the single 12th floor unit but found that a number of floors sustained fire, smoke and water damage.<\/p>\n
Floors 11 and 12 were primarily affected, with water damage potentially extending as far down as the eighth floor, according to Lowenthal.<\/p>\n
Shortly after 6 p.m., he said fire crews determined 21 units sustained some kind of damage. He added that eight single-occupant units had to be evacuated.<\/p>\n
Karen Naumann, who lives on the ninth floor, was inside her apartment when the alarm sounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the alarm go off, which it does once a month or so,\u201d she said. \u201cI poked my head out, didn\u2019t smell anything, and came back in.\u201d<\/p>\n
After seeing multiple fire vehicles outside the building, she said she soon realized the situation was more serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cNormally we\u2019ll have one truck or two,\u201d Naumann said. \u201cWith six or eight, I thought, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Naumann said her mother, Leanna MacDonald \u2014 who lives on the 12th floor and has lived in the building for about 30 years \u2014 was able to shelter with a neighbor a few floors down while firefighters assessed the conditions on the 12th floor.<\/p>\n
Emily ThunderHorse, who lives on the 11th floor, said she was evacuated after water came through her apartment\u2019s entryway.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made sure I got out, because my entire entryway had water coming down,\u201d ThunderHorse said, adding that as she was evacuating the rest of her apartment seemed to be OK.<\/p>\n
ThunderHorse said she wasn\u2019t certain where she would be staying overnight and was awaiting further direction from the building\u2019s management and emergency officials.<\/p>\n
Choosing to remain optimistic, she added, \u201cIt\u2019ll be okay. There\u2019s a good community here. We can\u2019t do much while they all work, so why are we going to sit here and freak out about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
A Bethlehem Tower property manager who was there when the fire was reported declined to comment Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Fire officials said they are working with the American Red Cross to assist displaced residents who need shelter, Lowenthal said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe priority right now is limiting any more damage from the water and then helping get people into a shelter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
An investigation into the cause of the fire will be conducted after immediate emergency operations are completed.<\/p>\n
Despite the damage that displaced many of their neighbors, some residents said they still intend to celebrate New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe show must go on,\u201d said Naumann. \u201cI was just about ready for my glass of champagne but I\u2019m sure glad I didn\u2019t open it already.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No injuries were reported but authorities said eight people were displaced Wednesday following a blaze that damaged several…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,38796,422,38797],"class_list":{"0":"post-75298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-bethlehem-tower","12":"tag-fire","13":"tag-new-years-eve-santa-rosa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}