Fire Destroys S. 5th Street Apartment Complex: 2012 in Review

Editor's Note: As the year winds down, Ames Patch is looking back at some of the stories that made you talk, cry, laugh or just scratch your head.

Originally ran July 15, 2012

A fire that began in a carport of South Meadow Apartments Sunday morning quickly spread through the roof of the H-shaped building displacing about 90 people, but no one was injured.

Ames Fire Department received the report of the fire at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday morning. Ames Fire Chief Clint Petersen said the fire began in a carport containing a boat on the southeast corner of the building's first level. The flames then consumed the vinyl siding and spread into the roof through the soffit.

The man who reported the fire to authorities told the Ames Tribune that the boat in the carport was consumed with flames.

See photos of the fire.

Petersen said the fire spread through the common roof within an hour.

“There were no fire stops in the roof system as modern codes would call for,” Petersen said.

The complex located in the 300 block of S. 5th Street, was built in the early 1970s, according to property records available online.

Apartment managers quickly evacuated all the building's residents as well as residents from the adjacent building. People standing around the building Sunday said they watched flames shoot out of the building's roof.

Spencer McAte, a resident of the burning building, said he was awoken around 6 a.m. and only had time to save his cat.

“My friend gave me these shoes,” he said pointing down at his feet.

McAte, a college student, said his most expensive possessions were probably his computers which he hoped to salvage.

Four hours later flames occasionally flared up from the structure's third story.

"There's spot fires all over," Petersen said.

Petersen expected the building to be a total loss. The second level had just water and smoke damage. Petersen said firefighters hoped to help residents claim some of their possessions sometime Sunday afternoon. S. 5th Street had been closed and firefighters remain on the scene.