Nearly two years after a fatal New Year's Eve apartment fire in Everett, fire officials say they're making progress in the push to get fire alarm systems in apartment complexes up to code.
It was December 31, 2015 when a massive fire broke out at The Bluffs Apartments on West Casino Road. The apartment complex, built in the late 1960s, didn't have fire alarms.
As a result, neighbors said they had little warning. Some had no idea the fire was even happening, until they smelled the smoke and saw the flames themselves.
"Yeah I didn't hear nothing until we saw it," said resident Jose Velasquez. "Me and my buddies were hanging out, it was New Year's Eve, and I looked out the window and was like, oh man, that apartment is on fire."
He was one of more than 100 people whose apartment units were damaged by smoke, water, and flames on that night.
"We just grabbed whatever we could and ran outside," said Velasquez. "We just came outside and watched my house burn."
It's a memory that stuck with firefighters at the Everett Fire Department.
"That's definitely one of the fires you put in there as probably you only see one in your career, with that many rescues, with that much fire. It is one of the bigger fires we'll see," said Assistant Fire Marshal Steve Goforth.
For the fire department and the fire marshal's office, Goforth said the New Year's Eve fire served as motivation to crack down on a lack of fire alarms in 14 aging apartment buildings throughout the City of Everett.
"When we saw this vulnerable population living in older buildings, we saw that we needed to put something in to give people that extra few seconds to get out," said Goforth.
He says staff at The Bluffs were first to bring their fire alarm system into compliance, and seven other apartments have now followed suit.
"There wasn't really a bunch of pushback," he said. "Everyone saw that fire and they understood what needed to happen."
Under existing codes, it's just not enough to have smoke detectors inside individual apartments, which was the case during the 2015 fire at The Bluffs.
"The fire alarm system is much more involved," Goforth explained. "The smoke detectors are part of an overall fire system in a bigger place like an apartment. The fire alarm system includes all audible and visual devices and notification devices and initiation devices like pull stations. It will also have a centralized panel that will call the fire department once it receives an alarm."
Goforth says some apartment buildings have taken a bit longer to get in compliance, due in large part to fire alarm system installation costs of $100,000 or more.
But as we approach the second anniversary of the New Year's Eve fire, he says most of the six remaining apartment buildings have already applied for permits to start the process of installing fire alarms.
"My goal right now with the last of them is to have them all in by March of 2018," said Goforth.
Anyone not in compliance by March could be cited and fined by city officials, but Goforth hopes it doesn't get to that point.
Velasquez said he already feels safer because of the new fire alarm system now in place at The Bluffs.
"Yeah, because instead of people just banging on the window saying hey there's a fire, now we can yank those alarms, let people know, " said Velasquez.
He and his neighbors learned firsthand that every second counts when you're dealing with a fast-moving fire.
