Santa Fe fire investigators still have not made a determination regarding the cause of a recent fire at a low-income apartment complex, but a report released this week includes some details firefighters noted from their response to the May blaze.
The incident report notes the fire — which began in a utility closet on the first floor of a building at Santa Fe Suites — involved some “equipment,” but fire investigators wrote the cause was “undetermined.” The report states the building’s alarms and sprinklers operated correctly in response to the fire.
Santa Fe Fire Department Assistant Chief Sten Johnson said he wasn’t sure whether the report meant to indicate the equipment appeared to be the cause of the fire or was just damaged, but he said the cause and origin of the fire will be determined in another report by a separate investigator.
About three weeks have passed since the fire displaced all residents from one of the complex’s eight buildings, and all of the tenants of building No. 5 remained at a Santa Fe hotel as of Friday. Two of the residents were taken to an area hospital for treatment of possible smoke inhalation following the fire; both were released in the days after the incident.
Firefighters were sent to the fire just before 6 a.m. May 23; flames and smoke could be seen coming from an exterior stairwell on the building’s first floor, fire officials said. Two residents who live in second-story units were each rescued by firefighters with ladders.
The report states there were no “human factors” involved in the ignition of the fire, but Johnson said he didn’t believe it necessarily ruled out the possibility of the fire being caused by a person.
“The person who completed this report was the incident commander at the scene who ran the incident, who organized the attack and all the activities that took place that morning,” Johnson said. “Another fire investigator would later show up and do the investigation — now that report is due 30 days after the incident, so I think we still have another week or more before that is available.”
The report states the building’s detectors and mechanical sprinklers operated properly in response to the fire, alarming residents and releasing water. Firefighters noted the fire did not spread to any other buildings or structures.
Residents from the building’s 12 apartments had been displaced from their units for about three weeks as of Friday. The complex is located at 3007 S. St. Francis Drive near the Plaza Entrada shopping center at the corner of St. Francis and West Zia Road.
A few of the tenants have criticized the property management company that runs Santa Fe Suites — Arizona-based Apartment Management Consultants — saying the company has done little to help them in the weeks since the fire displaced them from their homes. They have also expressed safety concerns about the property, which was converted into apartments for low-income and homeless people in recent years after serving as a hotel for decades.
Some of the tenants said St. Elizabeth Shelter Corporation has helped them with hotel rooms and some meals in the meantime.
The residents shared a letter they received from Matt Hijar, a manager at the property management company, earlier this month that noted the fire “originated in the electrical and was intensified due to the door being left open, allowing airflow by unauthorized access by a non-resident.”
The letter stated work was underway to restore the building to a livable state, but Hijar noted the company could not offer a timeline for residents’ return to the building. He wrote the tenants’ June rent balances “are being reviewed and we will communicate adjustments privately at a later date.”
Hijar did not return a call seeking comment Friday.