Fire destroys Cascade condo units

CASCADE TWP, Mich. (WOOD) - An overnight fire left two units of a Cascade Township condominium building unlivable Sunday morning and forced all the estimated 15 residents living in the building out, at least temporarily.

It was the second fire at Forest Hills Condominiums in a span of roughly six months. No one was hurt.

Investigators said that, at first glance, there was nothing suspicious about the fire.

Maria Rodriguez lives in the unit where investigators believe the fire started overnight. She had a chance to walk inside her home, in the 6200 block of Architrave Drive, Sunday afternoon.

"It was hard," Rodriguez told 24 Hour News 8. "It was very hard."

She surveyed the damage a little more than 12 hours after fire ripped a hole in her roof and left so many of her possesions burned.

"The ones that aren't burned -- they are wet," Rodriguez said.

It was a fire Rodriguez didn't notice at first. She did have problems with some of her upstairs light fixtures Saturday night. Rodriguez checked to make sure the light bulbs were good, but the fixtures would not turn on.

"So then I decided I might have have some electrical problem and it's almost 11 o'clock, so I probably have to take care of this tomorrow," she said. Rodriguez smelled smoke too and checked around the home but couldn't find the source.

It was one of her neighbors, Marie Koetje, who saw the smoke. Koetje was driving into the complex when she saw it, though she couldn't find the source either.

"Because of the fire we had last December, I was a little paranoid," Koetje said. "So I rolled down the window and I was kind of sniffing around the air and I thought, 'Okay, something's wrong. Something's wrong.' "

She called 911.

Cascade firefighters were originally called to an odor of smoke in the area -- and that's what they found. Firefighters worked to pinpoint it. They couldn't find any explanation inside Rodriguez's home, but when they walked to the rear of the unit, they saw the smoke.

And Rodriguez had to get out.

"I was pretty upset," she recalled. "I cried and I cried until I found some people .. down there and they -- everybody hugged me."

After she got out -- and called out her neighbor's name repeatedly so she would do the same -- the smoke turned to flames.

"[It] just burst through the roof and it's like, 'Oh, not again,' " Koetje remembered thinking.

Condo association vice president Roxane Brown got a late-night phone call and opened up the clubhouse -- a place where residents could go and meet with representaties from the American Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids.

"I hate to say we had a test run in December, but we kind of know which way to go with it now," Brown said.

This year's fire forced the evacuation of six units. Two -- Rodriguez's and her next-door neighbor's -- are expected to be a total loss. A third was damaged by water. Residents in the other units may be able to return in the near future.

There was one piece of good news for Rodriguez Sunday: she was able to get her car out

"That was the most important," Rodriguez said -- that and some paperwork. "I'm going to see what else I can get and figure out where i'm going to live now. We'll see."

The Red Cross is putting her up in a hotel room again Sunday night -- and she has friends where she could stay. But Rodriguez said she does not want to impose. She had just decided she ought to buy condo insurance, but had not done it yet.

It could be some time before Rodriguez is able to move back in. Work still continues on a unit affected by December's fire at Forest Hills.