[Archived] Elevator Fire at 4921 Seminary Road


News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date:	Friday, September 24, 1999
Contact:	Jane Malik, Public Information Officer (703) 838-4339

Elevator Fire at 4921 Seminary Road

The Alexandria Fire Department was called to the Ashlawn Building of Southern Towers Apartments for a report of smoke in the building at 11:38 a.m. Thursday. When the first unit arrived, smoke was coming from the building. Smoke had penetrated throughout the building from the seventh floor through the sixteenth floor of the 16-story high-rise. The density of the smoke made it difficult to locate the site of the fire, but it was found to be on the seventh floor in an elevator car and was extinguished within about ten minutes of the Fire Department's arrival at the scene. Because of the pervasiveness of the dense smoke in the residential high-rise, additional apparatus responded for a total of three alarms.

After the fire was extinguished, the process of ventilating and clearing smoke from the building took about an hour. The residents of all floors except the 7th were able to return to their units this afternoon. No one was injured in the fire. The Fire Marshal's office is continuing to investigate the fire, which has been determined to be of suspicious origin. Damage is estimated at $150,000. It has not been determined when the residents of the 7th floor will be able to re-enter their apartments. This will depend on what the investigators find. Management has contacted cleaning companies to clean the water, heavy smoke and soot from the hallways. Once this has been accomplished, the investigators will be able to determine the safety of the hallways and the appropriateness of re-occupying the apartments.