[Press Release] : Press Release - Unattended Cooking Fire - 1000 Claudell Lane, Apt 103

[Press Releases]

PRESS RELEASE 08-25-2010

Contact:

Battalion Chief Steven Sapp
573-874-7556 Office (M-F 8-5)
573-499-7035 – Media Pager

Evening Fire Damages Apartment – Injures 1

(Columbia, MO) – The Columbia Fire Department responded to a report of a commercial structure fire at 8:07 PM on Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 1000 Claudell Lane, Apartment 103 – Columbia Square Apartments. 

Initial reports indicated that there was a fire in the kitchen area of the apartment and that one or more people in the apartment were possibly trapped. 

Fire fighters arrived on the scene and found light smoke coming from the kitchen door on the west side of the apartment. Fire fighters were told that both occupants of the apartment were not trapped and had exited the apartment via a window on the ground floor. 

Brittney True, 24 and her sister, Danielle True, 14, exited the apartment via a ground floor window. Brittney suffered lacerations to the foot, arm, and hands from broken glass. She was transported to Boone Hospital Center with non-life threatening injuries. 

A Columbia Police officer arrived on the scene moments before the fire department and ensured the occupants were out of the apartment and then used a fire extinguisher from his patrol car to extinguish most of the fire. 

Fire investigators determined that the fire began in the kitchen on the stove when the occupants were heating a pan of grease and left the kitchen. Fire spread to the microwave and cabinets above the stove. Fire and smoke damage was confined to the kitchen with light smoke damage through the rest of the apartment. Damage to the contents and structure is estimated at $5,000.

###