Family's condition upgraded to serious after Salem apartment fire

SALEM, Ore. – Fire raced through an apartment complex early Friday morning in Salem, sending a family of four to the hospital where they were initially listed in critical condition.

Deputy Fire Marshal Laird Case with the Salem Fire Department told KATU News later Friday morning that the family's condition was upgraded to "serious" from critical.

All four family members, two grade-school age girls and their parents, were taken to the burn center at Emanuel Medical Center in Portland. As of Friday afternoon, one girl was alert and talking.

Another resident not related to the family was also hospitalized. Twelve people overall have been displaced by the blaze. Most are being assisted by the Red Cross.

Fire crews rushed to the small complex on Hadley Street Northeast at about 1:40 a.m. on reports of a fire. The blaze quickly went went to three alarms. Salem fire crews scrambled nine engines, two trucks, four chief officers and eight medical units to the scene and had the fire out just before 2 a.m.

Investigators said the fire started on an outside deck. The exact cause has not yet been determined.

A visibly shaken resident, Jennifer Verbeerst, said she was asleep at the time and was roused by her boyfriend, Mark Ballard, as the fire advanced. “The windows started popping and the place was engulfed immediately,” she said. Neither Verbeerst or Ballard were injured.

Verbeerst said she was able to grab two cats on her way out and tried to return to save two more but was turned back by the flames. The fate of the two missing cats is unknown.

Verbeerst said she and her boyfriend got out with on the clothes on their backs and the two felines but all their possessions, including their Christmas presents, are gone.

Ballard said he fell asleep watching TV and woke up to crackling and popping sounds. He said he gathered up two cats and knocked on a neighbor's door but "their place was already engulfed."

"I went back up, got both the cats knocked on the neighbors door and by then their place was already engulfed," Ballard said, "so they were already in their shower with water on ‘em trying to keep themselves from burning with the window open in the bathroom."

Samantha Aguirre, who lives across the street said she looked across the way and saw the building on fire. "I see is a bunch of flames and I’m like, oh my gosh is everybody out?" she recalled. "It was just smoke comin’ outta everywhere, there was glass everywhere, if you went in the back, I mean it was in flames, completely engulfed in flames."

Firefighters did not immediately say if smoke alarms were active in the complex.