An apartment building at 214 W. Coronado Ave. in Cortez was burned to a crisp in a fire on June 27. The fire forced occupants of all six apartment units to evacuate.
Fire crews from Cortez, Lewis-Arriola, and Dolores responded, as well as Cortez Police Department, Animal Control and Southwest Health System.
Cory Elliot, battalion chief for Cortez Fire Protection District, spoke with a Journal reporter on July 3 to give an update on the investigation.
“We are pretty positive it started in apartment six,” Elliot told a Journal reporter in a separate interview on July 3. Their investigation has mostly wrapped up, he said. There was no indication of what caused the fire.
“We might have more information if it hadn’t been burned so badly,” Elliot said.
There was “heavy fire damage to three of the six. The other three had pretty significant smoke damage, but no structural damage that we found,” Elliot said. Residents from all six apartments had been displaced, and Red Cross was aiding them.
A police report for the incident written by Officer Karla Ross stated that the patient transported to the hospital was the occupant of apartment six, and was transported for smoke inhalation.
According to the police report, the occupant’s name is Michael McLaws. He told police that he had been cooking steak and eggs when the fire started and had water bottles in the kitchen to put a fire out if one were to start. He had taken the battery out of the fire detector to use as a doorstop, the report said.
Occupants of the other apartments reported hearing glass breaking and shouts before realizing there was a fire. One neighbor told police that McLaws is known to have visitors, some of whom are homeless. The neighbor also mentioned a man who had been fighting with McLaws the day before, but said he hadn’t been around since then.
Police had responded to 214 W. Coronado Ave. on two separate occasions previous to the fire, both within a week of each other and the fire. These incidents were unrelated to the fire.
A passerby was the one to bang on everyone’s doors to get them out, the police report said. He said he opened the door to apartment six to make sure the occupant was out. He explained that the fire appeared to have started in the bedroom, as the kitchen was not on fire at that time.
According to Ross’ report, the property manager of the apartment building said that the housing authority had made a visit to apartment six the day before.
The housing authority “advised (McLaws) had removed his fire detector and his apartment was extremely dirty,” the police report stated.
After firefighters cleared the scene, residents were allowed back in to retrieve important items and documents, the police report said.
This article was updated to include information from the police report and the fire investigation.
