House Fire at 266

At 6am on November 27, 2000, there was devastating house w/4 apartments fire on Third Avenue in Kotzebue.
Officer Strickland of the Kotzebue Police Department was on routine patrol and smelled smoke,
subsequently discovered the fire and requested the fire company to respond. Both the Kotzebue Volunteer
Fire Department and the Department of Transportation Fire Department responded.
The fire burned for 3 hours and smoldered for 2 days thereafter.

During the Fire, Officer Rootes of the Kotzebue Regional Jail managed to take the following selections of photographs with the
Jail's digital Camera. Many of the pictures were taken from the perspective of the field/cemetery
behind the house. Later pictures from the street in front.

Hot ashes rained downwind of the fire, and the firefighters were hard pressed to keep
the neighboring houses from catching fire due to the intense heat of the blaze.
It should be noted the temperature that morning was at
or near -30F and at this time of year there was no light until after 10am.

Happily, no-one was personally injured by the fire although the property loss was great. The cause of the fire is as yet unknown, but these pictures should serve as a wake-up call for everyone to emphasize fire safety in the home, and keep up with electrical maintenance, sweeping of chimney stacks, furnace and appliance maintenance, and use of matches, etc by children and adults. Make sure your fire extinguishers are charged and periodically inspected and your smoke alarms have good batteries (change them when you change your clocks in Spring and Fall).

Nine months later in the summer, this is what is left: