Cell phone charger ‘blew up’: Fire at Modesto’s Kansas House displaces residents
A Tuesday morning fire at Modesto’s Kansas House, which provides homes for homeless people, displaced residents of three of the apartments and left 20 apartments without electricity.
The two-story Kansas House consists of 103 studio apartments and provides homes for about 150 residents, including about two dozen children. No one was hurt.
The fire started about 8:40 a.m. in one of the second-floor apartments in building C. The power was out to all of the building C apartments until being restored in the early afternoon.
A husband and wife live in the apartment. The husband, who declined to give his name, said he and his wife were finishing up walking their two Chihuahua mixes, Nelson and Ester, when they heard the building alarm. The man said he didn’t think anything until they reached their apartment, and he saw smoke escaping from the door.
“I opened the door and I was flooded with smoke,” the man said. He said firefighters told him a portable cell phone charger on the couple’s bed “blew up” and started the fire.
The apartment is uninhabitable, as are three downstairs apartments that sustained water damage as firefighters put out the blaze. One of the downstairs apartments was vacant.
Two other apartments sustained water damage but are habitable. A first-floor office where residents meet with case managers also had water damage.
The Kansas House is owned by the Stanislaus Regional Housing Authority and managed by the Stanislaus County Affordable Housing Corp.
STANCO Executive Director Steve Madison said while the power was restored to Building C by early afternoon, it was not restored to the three apartments with water damage. He said the residents of those apartments and the couple whose apartment burned were moved into vacant apartments.
STANCO site manager Revecca Acosta said the building alarm sounded at 8:38 a.m. She called 911 as she checked the apartment complex. The alarm automatically notifies the 911 system, but Acosta said she did not want to take any chances.
The Housing Authority purchased the former American Budget Inn & Suites at Kansas Avenue and Highway 99 and converted it into housing with financial assistance from Modesto and Stanislaus County. Kansas House opened in May 2020.
Officials from the Housing Authority, city and county were at the Kansas House on Tuesday. The majority of the tenants are clients of the county’s Community Services Agency and Behavioral Health and Recovery Services as well as the Downtown Streets Team.
Residents receive case management and other help.
