Husband and wife Edward and Margaret Smith stood side by side, surveying the unrecognizable charred remains of what they once called home on Tuesday, July 26. The torched husks of their two vehicles sat in the forefront of the Lighthouse Apartment complex that was devastated by a multiple-alarm fire two days prior.

It took 60 firefighters from 12 different units to put the fire out and all 41 tenants escaped with their lives, although two were taken to Harborview Medical Center for non-life threatening burns. People as far as Tacoma reported seeing the smoke as the 19-unit apartment blazed. The fire absolutely destroyed vehicles near the building, melted the rear light covers and bumpers of vehicles parked at least 70 feet away and gutted every apartment unit, now a burnt approximation of their original form.

The Smiths could see directly into their lower level apartment, all of their furniture and belongings reduced to ash.

“We figured we were in a safe house and nothing like that would happen,” Edward said as he inspected the devastation.

Smoke and then panic
“If it wasn’t for her, I would have been burned up.”

The Smiths were spending time with Edward’s sister Deljuan Gibson on Sunday afternoon when smoke started billowing from a second-story unit, one story about the Smith’s. Deljuan had stepped outside to grab lunch from McDonald’s when she saw the smoke and heard a fire alarm.

“And this man was standing on the sidewalk hollering, ‘Get out, get out now!’” Deljuan said. “And then he said, ‘Fire!’”

“He was just a guy off the street,” Margaret said. “You could hear his voice like he was on a megaphone, he was screaming and you could hear him all through the apartments and everyone came bailing out.”

Deljuan yelled to her sister-in-law to get moving.

“She just happened to go to McDonald’s,” Margaret said of Deljuan. “If she wouldn’t have gone to McDonald’s I would have been in there. I had seconds to get out of the building before it burned me. If it wasn’t for her, I would have been burned up.”

The women grabbed their purses and Margaret grabbed her keys in hopes of moving her car. They rushed to the safety of the parking lot.

Meanwhile, Edward said he ran up to the second story unit where a thick, dark smoke was pouring out. He saw fire and smoke in the kitchen and living room. “I saw a small fire coming out of what looked like a light socket,” he said (fire investigators are still in the process of determining the fire’s cause.)

Edward grabbed a fire extinguisher from the porch and tried to attack the blaze, but it was empty. He said a man emerged from the unit.

“He was kind of undressed and I told him he better get some pants and he darted back in there.” Edward searched the porch for another fire extinguisher, could not find one and ran back to the burning unit to make sure the man had gotten out.

“My sister kept telling me, ‘Come down, come down from there!’ and I was looking at her and telling her ‘There is a man in there,’” Edward said.

“And somehow he shot out of there and I didn’t see him and I was calling for him and trying to look under the smoke.” After hearing no response, Edward bolted to the parking lot to join his wife and sister (the man had already made it out).

“And in a matter of minutes a big great ball of fire extended all the way across the apartment,” Deljuan said.

“I ran to go try to get my car but I couldn’t,” Margaret said. “It was so hot by the time I got back the fire had spread all the way down the hallway and it was like an inferno. My arm was burning, fire was falling all around me and my husband was hollering, ‘Run, run Margaret run!’”

Firefighters had arrived on the scene by this time and were able to rescue a wheelchair-bound man, the last remaining tenant in the building, according to Edward.

Margaret, Edward and Deljuan ran south on Des Moines Memorial Drive until they could handle the intense heat emanating from the blaze, nearly a half block down the road. At that point the Smiths could only stand and watch as their two vehicles and apartment were destroyed.

The Aftermath
The Seattle Chapter of the Red Cross disaster relief squad came in after the fire to provide housing for those in need, some finding rest and food at Peace Lutheran Church in West Seattle.

Margaret and Edward have been staying with Deljuan, and Edward said their future is uncertain.

Unable to afford renter’s insurance on the apartment and only holding liability insurance on their vehicles, all of those things are now gone. The Lighthouse Apartments are operated by Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission, and the Smiths were living in the reduced-rent, low-income housing to weather tough economic times where Edward has had difficulty finding full-time employment.

Edward said Union Gospel is trying to find housing for the displaced tenants, but he assumes the few units that are available at other reduced-rent complexes will go to families with children first.

“I just gotta go day service (temp jobs) until I get me a real job,” Edward said. “Starting all over again.”

In the face of tragedy, the Smiths maintain a positive outlook grounded in the things that really matter. Not cars, not furniture, not clothes, but each other and the support of their family.

“We are still alive,” Edward said, standing before a calamitous backdrop exhibiting all they had lost, “and I thank God each moment.”

For information on how to help those displaced by the Lighthouse fire, visit the Union Gospel Mission website found here and check out the Times' earlier coverage, Lighthouse Apartments on Des Moines Memorial Drive engulfed by fire.