Please read this all the way through, I apologize if it is a little drawn out, but I feel so strongly that there is a cover up that it almost makes mel sick to my stomache. I have tried to research on my own, finding a little, but I am just not sure where to look. The situation I am about to explain has changed my life, and effected me (and my mother) in ways we will probably never recover from. I lost someone very close to my heart, and I almost lost a child. Please don't overlook this, I just feel deep in my gut the something can be done, I just need more resources.
October 3, 1:30 A.M. While I was working, my mother (we live together) was waken by a screaming smoke detector. She had only been asleep for about 30-40 minutes. Confused and dazed she looks toward the kitchen and sees smoke. She can't remember leaving anything on as she rushes toward the doorway. As she enters the room she realizes the smoke is coming from the basement, which we turned into an apartment for myself, and soon to be sleeping quarters for my 2 youngest childern. She remembers my friend Terry, who had a truck break down in our driveway unable to fix until daylight, had been using a candle for temporary light as he used our washer and dryer.
Completly paniced, she screams Terry's name and runs for the extinguisher and the phone. She calls 911, then back downstair with hopes to put the fire out.By now the shelves where the candle had set were consumed by flames, and all the oxygen in her lungs seemed to be sucked out. She ran back upstairs, heading for the room my 2 year old lay sleeping, grabbed him putting him on the front steps with strict orders to stay there!
Back into the house she ran to her bedroom where my 8 year old was sleeping franticly waking him and putting him on the floor telling him to crawl to the front door, (the smoke now overtaking the upstairs) the house was on fire.
She couldn't keep herself together to think straight, my daughter was in my bedroom asleep... in the basement.
Alright, I'm sure you are familiar with the story. I just wanted to paint a little bit of a picture to maybe make you see where I and many people I recite this story to, agree.
1: The one fire truck that was able to make it over the bridge, didn't make it much further, stopped by brick pillars at the bottom of our driveway, not that if it could have gone any further it would have mattered, they were only carrying 1000 ft. Which takes me to...
2: The nearest water source (Johnson Creek) was 3500 ft. Away. There was no fire hydrant even close. 2 firemen ran inside un-armed to try to save my daughter, thank you to them they were successful. Jason McGowan stated to me that it was close to 30 minutes before the were able to fight this fire, due to lack of water source and hose. Do you realize how long that is to have a fire tearing through a house built in the 40's and had absoloutly no fire protection, which now brings me to...
3: I have done some research, and I believe that the law requires a rental home to have at leaste 2 hours of burn protection between floors, at the least. When you looked up at the ceiling in the basement, you saw the upstairs floorboards. 2 hours could have saved a whole floor of the house, and maybe a life, but the house only burned for an hour as it was. The basement which we had turned into my apartment, we did in full knowledge, and a couple of check-ups by our Property Management Specialist, Laurie Wulf. Which brings me to another error in their favor...
4: It was not legal to use the basement as living or sleeping quarters, for lack of outside exits which would qualify as safe exits, yet we had never been told this. There was legally no requirement for smoke detectors downstairs, for it could not be considered living quarters, but Laurie Wulf told channel 2 news that one exisited in the basement, and I garantee she knew there wasn't, nor had ever been one down there. Now why is she lying???
5: When we were allowed to enter the house after fire investigating was finished, a few days later, there had been orders by someone further up the ladder to level the house, that there was nothing to salvage anyway. We arrived to running demolition equipment waiting for the fire investigators to finish up so they could level the house.
Mind you, the garage did not burn and 4 rooms 2 up 2 down that had not been completely desroyed, in those room irreplacable keepsakes that had made it through with little damage. Why such a hurry? We were pestered by Laurie for close to an hour wanting us to hurry so the demolition could start burrying everything we could not fit in a 5'*5' storage unit to mildew while we lived in The Shilo Inn for the next 4 months. 2 adults 3 childern 1 miniature doberman in 1 room with 2 beds.
Not once did we recieve any kind of condolances, concern, as a matter of fact, people had been dropping off donations to them and when we called to find out how to pick them up, the donations seemed to be nonexistant.
As time goes on, and the more I realize there is something just not gelling here, the more affended I am.
My mother and I both try not to think about what we forgot to grab that had made it through the fire. We were not given the time to even morn what we had lost, which was pretty much all we had accumulated through the years.
If the fire didn't destroy it, then Metro Parks burried it. So be it. Whats lost is gone, but how dare them take what we had left and destroy it. Are they covering up their neglegance for the sake of???
Melanie
Gresham, Oregon
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