Fire destroys apartment; no one injured

IU graduate Jenny Gibson found her harmonica in working order, though it blows a little smokey. Her favorite T-shirt, emblazoned with Marilyn Manson, made it out only slightly scorched.\nAnd while altered by intense heat, photos of friends and family on her refrigerator remain recognizable.\nBut as Gibson stepped over heaps of insulation, fallen ceiling panels and unidentifiable belongings hours after a fire gutted her Pavilion Dunn apartment Monday, what she was really looking for was her most prized possession, her 5-year-old gray cat, Blue.\n"Blue, where are you?" Gibson called after opening the soot-stained door to Apartment 12. "Blue?"\nTaking a few steps into the pitch black apartment, Gibson repeated her call.\n"Blue, where are you?" she said, coughing on smoke that remained from the morning fire.\n"Meow."\n"Oh my God," Gibson screamed as she walked toward the kitchen, her feet sloshing on wet carpet and drips falling on her head. "Oh my God. Oh my God. I can't believe you were in here this whole time."\n"Meow."\nEarlier, firefighters had searched for the cat but thought it ran away. \nGibson wanted to check for herself.\nThe cat had found its way into a favorite hiding place, Gibson said, a crawl space between a kitchen cabinet and adjacent bathroom. And Blue was content to stay there after much coaxing -- at least for the night.\n"He's been through a lot," Gibson said.\nThe fire, which was first reported at about 11 a.m., damaged four apartments at Pavilion Dunn, 419 E. 7th St., Fire Chief Jeff Barlow said. Gibson's apartment was destroyed. Three others sustained minor smoke and water damage.\nThe fire started when a heating vent ignited bedding in Gibson's apartment, then spread to a mattress and box spring. The three fire stations that responded were able to contain the blaze to one unit.\nHeaters must be kept clear to prevent fires as winter months arrive, Barlow said. Firefighters found three more rooms in the complex with bedding too close to heaters.\nWhile other tenants were cleared to return, Gibson was given a Red Cross allowance for clothes and toiletries and will live with a friend until a new Pavilion Property apartment is ready for her this week, said Ed Vande Sande, director of disaster services for the Red Cross, which is located next door to the apartment complex.\n"We set our all time response record," Vande Sande said. "We never know where stuff will happen. We go wherever we're needed."\nThe fire is only the second in 30 years for Pavilion Properties, which manages over 200 units and requires renters' insurance, said Mark Hoffman, the building's landlord.\nBy noon Monday, firefighters were tossing many of Gibson's belongings out her second-floor window and putting out hot-spots in her apartment.\nBut they couldn't notify Gibson until about 2 p.m. because she was at work.\n"I lost my mind crying when I heard," she said. "But after a while I just couldn't anymore so you have to make a joke about it."\nThat's what she was doing as she sifted through insulation, soggy books and articles of clothing strewn around the apartment complex lawn.\n"My undergarments are in the yard," Gibson said. "That's what I have a problem with right now."\nToday, Gibson plans to clean up more of the mess and see if Blue is ready to come out of hiding. \nIf you'd like to help, call the Red Cross at 332-7292.