Anchorage Daily News

When James Dennis of the Anchorage Fire Department first saw flames shooting high in the sky early Tuesday morning, he knew it was no ordinary fire.

The towering flames were tinted blue, a sign that natural gas was fueling the blaze that destroyed eight East Anchorage townhouses.

Firefighters marveled over the speed and scope of the fire, which started around 4 a.m. and kept them busy all day.

"Our response time was really short -- a minute, a minute and a half -- and when we got here it was already fully involved, from the ground to the roof to 50 feet above the roofs," said Dennis, a senior captain.

No one was injured and there was only one report of a missing pet -- a cat that ran away.

Residents, who stood across the street for much of the day, watching first flames and then smoke roll out of their homes, figure there will be little to salvage today when fire fighters escort them inside for a brief search.

"Nobody went out with anything," said Felix Ulofoshio, who lived in one of the condos with his wife, an adult daughter, a 5-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. "Everything we owned is gone."

Fire Department spokesman Tom Kempton said the blaze started somewhere outside behind the three-story condo units in the 6200 block of East 41st Court, near Baxter and Tudor roads. It quickly moved inside and into the attic, where it raced from unit to unit.

In the first few minutes, the fire melted the service line riser leading to the gas meters, allowing gas to flow freely and tinting the towering flames blue.

Enstar Natural Gas Co. crews brought in a backhoe to dig three feet underground to shut off the gas at the street's source, Enstar spokesman Curtis Thayer said. The utility had people on the scene by about 4:15 a.m., he said, but it was after 6 before the flow of gas finally stopped.

Three massive explosions, caused by the leaking gas, rocked the building around 5:30 a.m. The blasts knocked out garage doors, moved walls and left the building so unstable fire fighters could no longer fight the fire from inside.

Dennis said he was standing across the street when the second of the explosions nearly knocked him over.

"I had to go to one knee, it was so powerful," he said. "You could see the building lift, expand and put itself back down. It moved a lot."

Firefighters inside rushed out. Three were taken to the hospital because they weren't wearing masks and had been exposed to carbon monoxide, Fire Department spokeswoman Jennifer Klugh said. There was also concern their hearing was damaged. They were examined and released, she said.

Volunteers from the Red Cross arrived at 5 a.m. and stayed for hours, handing out hot and cold drinks and comfort kits filled with toiletries. Volunteer Bruce Whalen said residents of all but one of the condos said they would find shelter with friends or family members.

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309. Report Megan Holland contributed to this report.

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