A smoldering mattress was the cause of a smoky apartment fire Tuesday in Fairview, firefighters said.
About 12 Anchorage Fire Department units pulled up to 1019 E. 13th Ave. around 11:50 a.m. Inside one of the first-floor apartments, a corner of a mattress burned, producing thick, black smoke, said Capt. Zach Stubbs of Station 1.
A resident told firefighters that he had accidently knocked over a lamp onto the mattress. There was no lamp shade, and the heat from the light bulb ignited the mattress bedding.
The building was evacuated while firefighters put out the flames with a fire extinguisher. It took firefighters about 10 minutes to pull the partially-blackened mattress from the building, Stubbs said.
Smoke permeated the other five apartments in the building, but there was no significant damage, he said. There were no sprinklers in the building and no working smoke detector in the affected unit.
Firefighters remained on scene at 1:45 p.m. replacing missing smoke detectors and dead batteries throughout the building, Stubbs said.
Reach Tegan Hanlon at thanlon@adn.com or 257-4589.
By TEGAN HANLON