Tacoma apartment fire causes smoke, water damage
Crews have put out an apartment fire in the 1100 block of Martin Luther King Jr Way in Tacoma.
Chelsea Shepherd, spokesperson for Tacoma Fire, told The News Tribune the department first got a call about an automatic fire alarm going off at the apartment complex at 11:26 a.m. When crews arrived, they found smoke and fire in the hallway.
“Fortunately, the fire was mostly put out and suppressed by the sprinkler, the automatic sprinkler in the building,” Shepherd said.
Crews extinguished the remaining flames at about 11:43 a.m., Shepherd said.
Shepherd said the fire started in one apartment on the second floor but did not spread to other apartments.
“The fire originated in one particular unit that had a lot of electronics – batteries and stuff, plugged in and charging – and so, it was an electrical failure with those electronic devices that sparked this fire,” Shepherd said.
There were no injuries, Shepherd said, and the resident who lives in the apartment was gone at the time.
Crews are on scene and using a fan to get rid of the smoke, Shepherd said. The apartment has smoke damage, and the first floor has water damage.
The building is otherwise inhabitable, Shepherd said.
