Fire destroys apartments

Afsha Bawany

Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2003 | 9:21 a.m.

A fire tore through a Henderson apartment building Tuesday morning, causing more than $300,000 in damage and leaving six families looking for another place to live.

It happened at the Lakewood Cove apartments on 1100 Center St., near Warm Springs Road and East Lake Mead Parkway. Henderson firefighters received a call at 11:20 a.m. that an upstairs apartment was on fire, battalion chief Gene Belin said.

A boy who lived in the complex initially alerted the leasing office of the fire, and 911 was called, property manager Anita Freeman said.

The residents were out of the building when firefighters arrived, Belin said. Firefighters also evacuated residents from four nearby buildings, he said.

No residents were injured, but a woman who did not live in the building got too close to the smoke. She was taken to a hospital with respiratory problems. A fire captain suffered respiratory problems and was taken to the hospital, Belin said.

The complex is made up of eight-plexes with four apartments upstairs and four downstairs. Two apartments on the top level were destroyed and six others were damaged by smoke and water.

Fire investigators believe the blaze began in an air-conditioning unit on the roof, Belin said.

Six Henderson Fire Department engines, one Clark County engine and two American Medical Response rescue teams responded to the scene.

The American Red Cross was providing assistance and the apartment complex managers were relocating residents to other units owned by the company, Con Am.

Brendon Mangasur and his wife and two children were about to move into the building that caught fire when they saw the police cars and the fire trucks hosing down the rooms.

Mangasur's family is now living in a motel but plans to soon move into another apartment in the same complex.

"We're getting a better place," Mangasur said.

While watching firefighters extinguish the fire, Kevin Martinez and his fiancee, Rachell Simon, said they had complained before of problems, including air-conditioning breakdowns.

"It's the worst place we ever moved to," Simon said.

Freeman said her staff has worked hard at solving tenants' problems.

"Any time you have a community this size you're going to have people who are not pleased. We never deliberately ignore anybody. Never," said Freeman, who has been a manager for 12 years.

Freeman said the combination of the warm weather and high humidity has contributed to some problems with the air-conditioning, but that the staff has responded quickly.

Martinez and Simon were home at the time of the fire with their 13-month-old baby, Kevin Jr., while their other three children were at school.

"Tremendous smoke came out of the balconies and the roof itself," Martinez said.

Martinez works for the National Guard but is not on active duty. He said he hoped to save enough money to move or become active again and move into military housing.

"There is nothing we can do. The reality is not everyone can afford to move," Simon said. "We have to bite our tongues and go along with it."