It was nearly 2 a.m. on Sunday, April 14 when Audry Baratto, a fourth-year film major, was getting ready for bed. “It was a normal night, all the lights were off, my cat was lying next to me and then I heard pounding on me and my neighbor’s door,” Baratto said. “I look through the peephole and see the guy that apparently lives below me, and he’s just pounding frantically on both of our doors, so I think ‘Okay, something’s going on.’ So I open the door, and he tells me the building’s on fire.” Baratto said that her fire alarm never went off, nor did anyone else’s to her knowledge.

That night, one of the Campus Village apartment buildings, located just north of CWU, caught fire. According to the incident report provided by the Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue, the fire was started accidentally when a cigar was disposed of into a planter on the second floor. A seemingly harmless action that turned into an emergency situation. 

Search crews kicked in several doors in search of people unaware of the fire, finding two people asleep and completely oblivious. One person was sent to the hospital for smoke inhalation, but there were no fatalities or serious injuries involved with the fire. However, between property and content losses, there is an estimated loss of $500,000 in damages.

While emergency responders made a quick and effective response, Baratto doubts that tenants will be able to resume to normality any time soon. The apartment complex “is owned by PTLA Property Management, a property company that owns a lot of the off-campus apartments,” Baratto said. 

Baratto is one of the residents whose unit was not affected by the fire and was able to enter her apartment the next day. However, the power to the apartment was off for about a day and a half. While for the most part this just meant extra blankets to keep warm during the night, it also meant that all of the food in Baratto’s fridge went bad, something not so easy to remedy on a college student’s budget.

“I honestly doubt that they’re gonna give us anything,” Baratto said. “They’ll probably just come up with some sad statement about people being displaced. They’re not going to give us money unless they need to. I think there were like five or six people that lost their homes. I’ve heard nothing from them. They’ll probably put out a statement, but it could be two months before we hear anything. Who knows?”

Baratto said that many in the complex are still missing pets that escaped the fire, and other residents are struggling to find housing.