Fire at apartment complex leaves 16 homeless

By MARSHA DORGAN
Register Staff Writer

A three-alarm fire early Tuesday 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 homeless, including children.

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

The damaged single-bedroom apartments are in one of the complex’s two-story buildings, with three upstairs units 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 Tuesday afternoon.

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., Tuesday, and power was restored to the majority of customers by 5 a.m. the same morning, Morris said, adding, the possible cause is downed power wires.

Fire investigators were on scene 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 on Tuesday morning.

“This is a typical flashover, where all the contents and materials in the room are on fire.”

Drake said Schuyler, suffering from burns, was laying on the steps of a stairway of an adjacent apartment just feet from his front door when firefighters arrived.

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 were outside the building by the time firefighters arrived.

As daylight broke Tuesday morning, some of the fire victims sifted through the belongings firefighters had managed to save. Several somber-faced residents 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 had the smell 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 apartment managers also were 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 is 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.”

An army of firefighters and equipment lined Wilkins Avenue Tuesday morning, reaching almost to Shetler Avenue. The last fire crew left the scene around noon Tuesday.

An estimated monetary loss of the fire was not available on Tuesday.

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