Fire at apartment complex leaves 16 homeless

By MARSHA DORGAN
Register Staff Writer

A three-alarm fire early this morning at the Willow Glen Apartments on Wilkins Avenue in east Napa engulfed six units, sent a man to the hospital with critical burns and left 16 tenants, including children, homeless.

Two units were destroyed, two received major damage and the other two had moderate to minor damage in the 3 a.m. fire, according to Napa Fire Marshal Darren Drake.

The one-bedroom apartments damaged in the fire are in one of the apartment complexes two-story buildings, with three upstairs and three downstairs units per building.

The fire started in the middle downstairs apartment. The sole occupant, Jimmie Schuyler, 61, suffered first-and second-degree burns over 30 percent of his body and also had respiratory injuries, said Mike Randolph, Napa fire operations division chief.



He was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center and then transported to UC Davis Medical Burn Center in Sacramento, Randolph said.

Schuyler was in critical condition, a hospital spokeswoman said this morning.

The building is not equipped with a fire sprinkler system. Each unit has a smoke detector, Napa Fire Capt. Peter Langham said. “However, the power had gone out earlier, disabling the smoke detectors. So they were not working at the time the fire started.”

PG&E spokeswoman Jana Morris said there was a power outage in the Napa area that affected about 970 customers. It started at 2:40 a.m., and power was restored to the majority of customers by 5 a.m., Morris said, adding, the possible cause is downed power wires.

Fire investigators have been on scene since around 5 a.m., sifting through debris to determine how the blaze started. “At this point, we only know the point of origin, which is the burn victim’s unit. It is far too early to confirm a cause,” Drake said.

Drake said Schuyler was sitting on the steps of a stairway of an adjacent apartment, just feet from his front door, when they arrived on scene.

The fire started in Schuyler’s unit and spread directly to the apartment above him, where seven people live.

One of the residents in that apartment told fire officials he was awakened by a stomping noise coming from the apartment below, Drake said. “He said the tenant below (Schuyler) was yelling, ‘Fire, fire, everyone get out.’”

All of the tenants in the building involved in the fire had made it out of their units by the time firefighters arrived.

As daylight broke, some of the fire victims sifted through belongings firefighters had managed to save. Several victims with somber faces searched through papers and other water-soaked items.

Three men gathered up sporting equipment and a drenched pair of cowboy boots. Charred furniture and mounds of burnt rubble were piled around the building, which still smelled of burning materials.

The American Red Cross was on scene shortly after the fire was reported.

Spokeswoman Sharon Baker said the first step was to get the displaced victims to a motel.

“Then we will have them come into the office to pick up vouchers for food and clothes. We will work with those who don’t have a place to stay to find them housing,” said Baker.

Langham said the apartment management was also housing displaced tenants in unoccupied apartments at the complex.

The injured victim, Schuyler, is a well-known face at Napa Golf Course at Kennedy Park in south Napa.

Schuyler has worked at the golf course maintaining the carts and driving range for about 10 years. He lost one arm in December 1968 in  an industrial accident while working for the railroad in Oakland, yet he still golfs a few times a week.

Robert Becker, assistant golf professional at the golf course, described Schuyler as a “nice guy who really would do most anything for anyone. He was always willing to help out. All of our regulars know Jimmie. He sort of a fixture out here,” Becker said. “It is really sad something like this happened to such a nice guy.”

Becker said Schuyler is a long-time Napan. “His dad worked on the Wine Train. Jimmie worked with him for a while.”

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