Post last updated at 5:11 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19:
Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical first responders worked to put out a fire at Brandon Woods at Alvamar Monday afternoon.
The initial call came in just before noon Monday, according to LDCFM’s PulsePoint app. Several fire apparatus were dispatched to the senior living community at 1501 Inverness Drive in west Lawrence.
“There was a large amount of dense smoke coming from the structure. Fire was found in the attic and crews performed venting efforts upon arrival,” according to a news release from LDCFM.
The fire was declared under control at 2:20 p.m., but LDCFM will continue to perform fire watch on the building overnight, according to the release. The cause of the fire was still under investigation as of 5 p.m. Monday.
Donna Bell, executive director of Brandon Woods, said all residents had been accounted for.
There were no reports of any injuries to residents. One Lawrence police officer was taken to an area hospital for smoke inhalation, but she is going to be OK, according to the Lawrence Police Department.
Erica Gudenkauf is visiting Lawrence from Phoenix. She’s in town to send her freshman son off to the University of Kansas.
She said she noticed the smoke from the intersection of Bob Billings and Wakarusa and decided to drive by the scene. When she arrived, she was surprised to see that there were no fire trucks outside the apartments.
She and her husband quickly called 911 and began evacuating residents. A police officer soon arrived and “broke down some doors to get in,” she said.
She provided these videos from the scene:
Gudenkauf said she almost didn’t drive by Brandon Woods.
“We thought, ‘Oh, somebody else will call it in,’” she said, “and then you pull up and there’s no one calling it in.”
Lawrence Transit buses transported about 85 Brandon Woods residents to the nearby Bella Sera Condominiums, where they could be within air conditioning, according to LDCFM’s news release.
“The residents have been connected to resources with the Red Cross and Douglas County Emergency Management to identify alternative housing options,” according to LDCFM’s news release.
The fire department requested units from Johnson County to assist with other calls in the city while the fire was active, and off-duty firefighters were called in to work to staff reserve equipment, members of the International Association of Firefighters Local 1596, the local firefighters union, posted on Facebook.
Altogether, “Resources through mutual aid were provided from Douglas County Consolidated Fire District No. 1, Olathe Fire Department, Overland Park Fire Department, and Johnson County MED-ACT,” according to the LDCFM news release. “These resources assisted with additional coverage for the City of Lawrence and Douglas County during this incident.”
The incident comes on the eve of the Lawrence City Commission’s budget hearing, when commissioners will consider making cuts to LDCFM staffing.
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Molly Adams (she/her), photojournalist and news operations coordinator for The Lawrence Times, can be reached at molly@lawrencekstimes.com. Check out more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
— Reporter Mackenzie Clark contributed to this article.
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Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
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