Recovery begins after fire destroys Wasilla building

WASILLA — Fire destroyed a large commercial building in the downtown Tuesday morning.

Before the week was out, community members had started taking in donations for a nonprofit housed in the building at 700 N. Wasilla-Fishhook Rd. and for a family that lived in an apartment on the second story of building.

“We cannot tell you in words how much it means to us, that our communities are rallying around us, holding us up and not letting us fall,” read a note from one of the people behind the Hope for Heroes charity on a gofundme.com page established to help the nonprofit rebuild.

The Doughty family — two adults and three children — lived in that apartment, according to posts in a Facebook discussion group for one of the children’s soccer teams. The community has set up a bank account to accept donations at Wells Fargo. The number on the account is 9938191088 and the name is Doughty Family.

Also housed in the building was electric supply company, Crescent Electric.

In addition to the charity for the displaced residents and businesses, at least two downtown businesses handed out treats to firefighters Tuesday and Wednesday. The Grape Tap offered free appetizers and The Awakening Espresso offered free coffee, according to the Mat-Su Borough.

The fire was the largest the Wasilla area has seen recently. Central Mat-Su Fire Chief James Steele had to reach back in his memory to the Wolverine Supply Company fire of 2005 to come up with a fire of similar size.

“This one is probably going to be I’m thinking a higher dollar loss than potentially Wolverine. We don’t know yet for a fact but I’m guessing it’s going to be a higher dollar loss,” Steele said. “Especially with the contents in there.”

Commercial buildings generally don’t burn, mostly because many of them are required to have fire sprinkler systems. The Crescent Electric building didn’t have sprinklers.

“This building, now, met the fire code regulations based upon the time that it was built and when the changes occurred, the add-ons occurred,” Steele said.

His investigators are checking to make sure that’s the case but thus far he said he believes the building met code requirements, he said.

Mat-Su Borough Deputy Director of Emergency Services Clint Vardeman said he thought the building was decades old. Borough property records list the building as constructed in the 1970s.

“I know it was very old. At one point in time it was a warehouse for Sears, it has been a bus barn, it has been any number of things,” Vardeman said.

Firefighters were on scene four minutes after the call went out shortly after 4 a.m., Jan. 20. Videos from the scene show large flames engulfing a good part of the building.

The borough called in dozens of pieces of fire apparatus. Crews responded from Palmer, Butte, West Lakes, Houston, Caswell, Willow and even Chugiak fire departments to aid Central Mat-Su Fire Department, which is responsible for fire service in the area.

The fire snarled traffic in the area briefly and also took out power to the neighborhood after fire damaged a power pole. Traffic shutdowns impacted Iditarod Elementary, which sent kids briefly to nearby Wasilla Middle School.

On scene Tuesday, Steele said the building was leased to multiple tenants, and the multiple interior walls and spaces made firefighting difficult. Part of the building had a second story, which contained one apartment and lots of storage, he said.

There was also a garage segment to the building. On videos taken at the scene people are seen moving vehicles away from the building. Off the top of his head Steele listed four vehicles — a pickup, a van, a car and a four-wheeler — that were saved. But two pickups and two forklifts didn’t make it out.

“I know both pickups were damaged totally damaged and I don’t know for sure yet about the forklifts,” Steele said.

The department and an investigator from the building owner’s insurance company are investigating the fire. Steele said he couldn’t talk about the investigation yet. He said Thursday that investigators might be out there again today.

“It’s dependent a lot upon weather,” Steele said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.