Structure Fire - 09/29/10 - Albuquerque, NM

On September 29th, 2010 at 22:22 hours, the Albuquerque Fire Department received a 9-1-1 call for a well involved apartment building fire at 6000 Topke Place, NE. The fire originated in a first floor apartment of a 2 story, 8 unit apartment building. The burning apartment was occupied by a mother and four children, and the fire took the life of a 14 month old child. Prior to the arrival of fire units, the mother was able to evacuate and rescue three of her children and attempted to enter the apartment to find the last child but by this time extreme fire conditions prevented re-entry. Within 4 minutes of the 9-1-1 call, Engine 15 and Rescue 15 arrived on scene and reported heavy flames and smoke rolling out of the 1st and 2nd story windows and doors, indicating that the 1st story apartment was fully involved in fire and that fire had rapidly spread to the 2nd story apartments.

Firefighters entered the fire apartment to extinguish the fire and to search for the missing infant but were forced out by intense heat and heavy smoke. In a valiant effort, Paramedics from Rescue 15 made entry through a window to save the infant but were forced out by a collapsing roof and ceiling. Advanced fire conditions and an unstable structure forced the incident commander to launch a defensive attack. The fire was declared under control at 22:50 hours. At that time firefighters re-entered the structure and located the infant in a rear bedroom. Advanced fire conditions and toxic fire gases in the form of smoke strongly suggest that infant’s life was lost prior to the arrival of firefighters. Four of the eight apartments were completely destroyed by the fire. The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental, as a child was found to be playing with a cigarette lighter.