That was the window of time Sgt. Anders N. Olafson of Fort Drum said he had to ensure eight other people got safely out of a two-story apartment house that caught fire about 1:50 a.m. Thursday before it was engulfed in flames. It was a fight-or-flight situation that Mr. Olafson — who has been deployed twice to Afghanistan — was well-equipped to handle, according to displaced tenants who give him credit for saving their lives.
The 25-year-old said he was the first one to notice the fire on the ground floor of the apartment house at 29736 Route 3 near Black River, owned by Travis M. Jordal. He said he left his bedroom door open during the night to allow heat from the furnace room inside, because temperatures were minus 20 degrees or lower that night. It was the first time the Maine native had left his door open during the night since he’d moved into the apartment building about six months ago, when he returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
“I woke up because the room got really bright. At first I thought someone turned on the light in the room, but then I saw a flicker,” he said Saturday at the Comfort Inn in Watertown. The American Red Cross North Country Chapter paid for some of the displaced tenants to stay at the hotel through Monday.
“I was pretty lucky that I kept my door open,” he said.
When he stood up to look outside the door, Mr. Olafson said, he saw that the wall of the adjacent furnace room was consumed in flames. Maneuvering his way through a narrow alley between a couch and the furnace room, where flames were swirling, he ran halfway up the staircase to alert the three tenants upstairs, yelling “Fire, fire, fire!”
After running back down, he then kicked the door of a room at the rear of the house occupied Casey Williams, a specialist at Fort Drum. After watching him “mainline” for the front door, he took a breath before moving low to the floor through the smoke-filled living room, going back up the stairs to make sure the residents were coming out. He forcefully kicked the door of a room occupied by Fort Drum Sgt. Luke J. Hitchcock and his fiancee, Shanan M. Schnurer. He then kicked the door of the room of Stewart Smith, a senior airman at Fort Drum. He said he also heard another upstairs tenant, whose studio apartment had a private entrance outside, moving in his room and knew he’d make a safe exit.
Mr. Olafson said he then ran down the staircase, accompanied by Mr. Smith, to leave the building. He said he paused to speak briefly with the landlord, Mr. Jordal, in the living room. Mr. Jordal initially suggested they stay to fight the fire until he saw its intensity.
“He grabbed a pot of water, but it steamed up in the air and evaporated because of the heat,” Mr. Olafson said.
He said that he “really didn’t think” when he was moving through the house to alert tenants to the fire.
“Everything just went blank,” he said. “I don’t remember what I thought — I just did what my body did.”
Ms. Schnurer said she made a frantic exit down the staircase with Mr. Hitchcock as flames were spreading from the furnace area to engulf much of the living room, making it difficult to cross through.
Video of the fire can be seen at http://wdt.me/FeltMills-Fire.
“When we got down, I froze for about 30 seconds looking at how big the fire was and wondering how I was going to get out. Flames had spread to the floor and ceiling, and it was terrifying. I heard the landlord’s wife yelling for us, and my boyfriend pushed me. We heard (a pipe) burst over our heads and could hear this loud hissing noise as we went,” she said, adding that she ended up falling on one of the couches in an attempt to hurdle it.
Mr. Hitchcock said he hadn’t suspected the fire was so intense until he reached the bottom of the staircase. He said he had taken time to find his wallet, car keys and cellphone, and put his shoes on before leaving the house. He said others weren’t as fortunate, though, as almost everything they owned was swallowed in flames, including car keys and cellphones. He said some tenants left the building without coats or shoes.
“Before I saw the fire I thought that it wouldn’t be that bad,” he said, adding that he couldn’t smell smoke upstairs. “But the second I saw it I knew I was wrong.”
Mr. Hitchcock said that as the couple left the landlord’s apartment, he could tell that the flames were moving more swiftly because of the air coming in through the open door of the landlord’s apartment at the side of the house, fueling the blaze.
Mr. Hitchcock credited Mr. Olafson — whom he met in Afghanistan in December 2013 while they were members of the 2nd Platoon in the 3rd Battalion, 71st Cavalry Regiment — for his take-charge response to the fire.
“As a soldier, he’s trained to not leave anyone behind. And he did the right thing to save everyone’s lives,” Mr. Hitchcock said. “We would have not gotten out if it weren’t for him.”
Ms. Schnurer said the 30 seconds it took her to get from the house to the road was enough time for the fire to entirely consume the house, adding that its two open doors caused the flames to spread rapidly. She said she feels lucky to be alive.
“We all agree that if Andy hadn’t woke up when he did to come and get us, we all would have died,” she said.
By the time volunteer fire departments arrived about 2:15 a.m., the roof had already partly collapsed and it was clear the house would be a total loss, she said. None of the tenants had renter’s insurance, she said, forcing them to restart their lives from scratch.
The only person injured in the blaze was Mr. Jordal, who suffered third-degree burns and frostbite as a result of his attempts to save belongings from the fire, Mr. Olafson said.
He said that although he lost $10,000 worth of personal belongings, including a 55-inch television and all of his military gear, he has decided not to dwell on what he has lost.
Mr. Olafson, who will leave Fort Drum in two weeks to become a recruiter for the Army in Bangor, Maine, said he feels grateful that everyone was able to walk away from the fire alive. He has lived in Watertown for about 2½ years.
“It was one-fourth dumb luck and three-fourths reacting,” he said of the successful response, adding that he would have slept longer and lost precious time if his door hadn’t been open. “If I wouldn’t have woken up, everyone would have been dead, or maimed and burned by the fire.”
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