Blanket over rope light blamed for condo fire

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The Beaverton Valley Times 1/1/2007

Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue crews said a sprinkler system saved six Aloha condominums from major fire damage early New Year’s Day.

Fire damage was limited to a second-floor bedroom of one condo at about 7:20 a.m. at 1040 S.W. 170th Ave.

A blanket draped over an operating rope light apparently caused the fire. The blaze caused about $20,000 damage to the condo.

Firefighters from the fire district’s Butner Road Station 61 arrived at the condomiums to find a second-floor townhouse condo filled with smoke. They searched the condo and found that a residential sprinkler system had extinguished a fire in a bedroom on the third floor.

Fire damage was confined to the bed and carpet of one bedroom. Minor smoke damaged occurred throughout the two-story unit with water damage occurring to the unit involved in the fire and two first floor condos. No one was at home in the fire-damaged condo at the time of the blaze. No one was injured.

No one was home in the condo that had been damaged.

Fire investigators said that had the building not been fitted with residential sprinklers, the fire would have likely damaged or destroyed a major portion of the six-unit building ruining the possessions of many of the occupants.

Sleeping residents in adjacent units would have been particularly vulnerable, according to firefighters.

Fire investigators said the heat buildup from the rope light ignited a blanket and a mattress.