Workers help rescue residents from west Eugene apartment complex fire

Police are investigating a fire as possible arson that displaced residents from four apartments Tuesday morning in west Eugene.

Eugene-Springfield Fire crews arrived at the 200 block of Bethel Drive at around 7:15 a.m. Tuesday. Upon arrival, they learned residents had already been evacuated, with some help from neighbors, the department's spokesperson Kelsey Hunter said in a news release.

A foreman and other workers next door at Commercial Dehydrator Systems heard people screaming and went over to help rescue three residents with a ladder, company president Mark Sibbald said.

“They heard people yelling. There was an older guy on the first floor in a wheelchair screaming that he couldn’t breathe, and an older lady on the upper floor,” Sibbald said. “So they ran and grabbed one of our ladders and helped get them out.”

One of the residents was Louanna Shaw, who said she was sleeping in a recliner chair in her second-floor living room when she woke up to find heavy smoke seeping through her front door.

“I opened the door, saw little sparkles, and big black smoke just engulfed me, so I went to the back of the apartment to get to a window,” Shaw said.

Shaw got to the window, where a worker outside was urging her to jump, she said. Shaw said she didn’t want to leave her cats behind, so she looked back into the apartment and was hit by another wave of smoke. She was unable to locate them.

After some initial hesitancy, Shaw said she felt a burning pain from the heat of the fire on her back and decided to jump.

“I felt it on my back — like a sunburn — just ‘Ow, ow,’” Shaw said from the sidewalk after getting assistance from the Red Cross on Tuesday.

Shaw jumped, and the worker was able to help soften her fall, she said.

The workers and other community members also helped pull one resident out of a first-floor apartment, Hunter said.

Multiple cats at the complex were not accounted for, according to Hunter.

One resident was transported to a hospital for injuries. Another said he was dealing with smoke inhalation issues and had burns on his arms.

Hunter said it’s important for residents to have an emergency escape plan, especially in buildings such as this one where there was only one exit: the front door.

Hunter said the fire started on the building's first floor. The fire department and Eugene Police were still trying to determine the origin of the fire Tuesday afternoon. Police are investigating possible arson.

Louis Krauss covers breaking news for The Register-Guard. Contact him at lkrauss@registerguard.com, and follow him on Twitter @LouisKraussNews.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Police investigate west Eugene apartment fire as possible arson