Terra Trace fire alarm problems revealed in BFD report

Investigators still do not know the exact cause of an apartment fire that lead to the death of freshman Renee Ohrn, but the apartment where her body was found had no operable smoke detectors, according to a Bloomington Fire Department report.

A resident of unit D9 had removed the smoke detector the day before the Oct. 1 fire at Terra Trace apartments “because it had been going off and was annoying.”

“Smoke detectors (or remains of) were found in each apartment except apartment D9,” investigator Tim Clapp said in the report. “(The) D11 detector was not found but had a large amount of damage, and the ceiling had fallen.”

The report listed the fire as accidental and found the area of origin to be near a ceiling light in apartment D8, a floor below the apartment where Ohrn was found.

The report said apartment D8 was heavily damaged by fire. One wall in the living room and the bathroom had been “mostly destroyed by direct flame.”

Near the ceiling light, the fire had burnt a hole through the ceiling and through the floor of the apartment above.

Closed doors in the apartments kept most of the fire from the bedrooms, but “the bathroom was consumed by the fire.”

Clapp said in the report that in an initial inspection on the morning after the fire, he found a padlocked electrical panel with two breakers labeled “fire alarm” in the off position.

According to interview notes in the report, a woman who lived on the third floor where Ohrn was found said she pulled the fire alarm, but nothing happened and no alarms
sounded.

One woman said she had seen smoke coming out from behind the door of apartment D8. She felt the door and could tell it was hot, so she went to get her boyfriend.
As she was leaving, another boy came and opened the door with a credit card, filling the hallway and staircase with smoke. The woman ran upstairs to get her boyfriend and they escaped through heavy, black smoke.

The fire then most likely spread to the stairway, where fire officials say they found a “heavy volume of fire” when they arrived at the scene.

Firefighters began in the front of the apartment, fighting fire to help two residents trapped on a third-floor balcony. Those individuals climbed down from the balcony and to safety.

Rescue efforts then began in the rear of the structure, where the building was more accessible. Emergency personnel found and removed three victims, including Ohrn, and transported them to IU Health Bloomington Hospital.

A private insurance investigation will continue to determine a more specific cause of the fire.

According to the documents, Terra Trace management has also hired a private fire investigator from Indianapolis to assist in the insurance investigation.