Approximately 50 people were displaced early Wednesday afternoon after a fire gutted one building of Stimens Apartment complex at 750 Maple Street, Mansfield.
“We had reports of several furnaces on fire. We had fire on the first, second and third floor when we got here,” said Asst. Chief Jim Bishop. “We tried to make an interior attack. [The fire] was in the attic space above us as we arrived.”
“Guys worked their tails off – two different lines going in two different units, two different sides of the building. And they did what they could. We had to pull them out,” he said. The firefighters began fighting the fire from above from ladder trucks. Ultimately, the extent of the fire was simply too much.
“We didn’t have the water supply that we need for this structure. We were getting 250-500 gallons per minute from the hydrants and that wasn’t enough to do what we needed to do,” said Bishop. “Guys worked their tails off.”
The official cause of the fire is under investigation.
Owner Kurt Stimens of Stimens Apartments said the fire was the worst one he has ever seen in many years as a property owner. Resident Brittany Borden observed the fire in her furnace.
“I was in my apartment getting ready to walk out, get my shoes on and go to work, and I looked down the hallway because I smelled smoke and I see that the back door of my furnace is on fire,” said Borden. “I told Michael, which is my son’s dad, and we hurried up and got out. He ran and banged on everybody’s door in our building to get out.”
She said other residents emerged from the building saying their furnaces were also on fire.
By approximately 11:50 a.m., Mansfield firefighters were on the scene and at 3 p.m. they continued to fight the fire.
“It looked like it was coming from one end and the other end, it wasn’t in the middle at first,” said nearby resident Michael Daniels. “And then all of a sudden, it started shooting out from the middle.”
Multiple fire departments, including tankers and ladder trucks, were called into service. Bishop said the fire required 12 trucks from Mansfield, Springfield Township, Madison Township and Washington Township’s rehab truck.
The three-building complex holds 48 two-bedroom units. Stimens said the center 24 units where the fire originated were occupied by about 50 people.
Building A and Building B of the Stimens Apartments complex on Maple Street are considered a total loss. However, no persons were injured in the fire.
Stimens owns multiple apartment buildings in the area and said other units might serve as temporary housing for displaced residents.
At around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night, the fire reignited in the central part of the building’s lowest level, said Mansfield Fire Chief Steve Strickling.
Because of the severity of the fire and the building’s condition, the chief wasn’t surprised that the fire reignited. “That’s not an uncommon thing to have happen,” he said.
He said that the fire department checked on the building hourly on Wednesday evening to ensure that another major fire didn’t break out. “We actually already had someone on the way to the building when there was smoke reported,” he said.
He said that only one engine was dispatched and that the crew was able to contain the fire within the hour.
This story was updated at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, with additional information about the fire reigniting Wednesday evening.
