Coos Bay Fire Department Responds to Apartment Fire, March 19

On March 17th at 1:54 a.m., the Coos Bay Fire Department responded to the report of smoke in an apartment at 1075 South 8th Street which is located in the downtown area of Coos Bay. The first arriving firefighters found light smoke coming from the crawl space vents at the rear of the building. The occupant smelled smoke and went outside to investigate. The occupant found fire coming from the crawl space vents located under his apartment. He located a nearby garden hose and extinguished the fire. The occupant then called 911 and reported the fire. The apartment is owned by Todd Golterman from Sacramento, CA, and it was occupied by Justo Garcia. The apartment’s interior did not suffer any damage, but some of the exterior siding was damaged as well as some of the structural framing of the floor and exterior wall. An investigation into the cause of the fire was conducted by the Coos Bay Fire Department, and it was determined that the area of origin of the fire was on the exterior siding and surrounding structural framing members. The cause of the fire appears to be heat transfer from a hot object to the siding. The Coos Bay Fire Department estimates the fire damage to the structure to be $5,000.00 and no loss to the occupant’s contents. It is unknown at this time if the owner of the structure has insurance on the apartment complex. No injuries were reported.