GUILDERLAND — Early Sunday morning, software programmer Premjeet Sougrakpam was at home, sleeping in his Regency Park apartment, as were his wife, her mother, and the couple’s two sons — one of them three years old and the other born just five days earlier. 

They were awakened by a loud bang at about 4:30 a.m. When they ran to a back window to see if something was wrong, they saw flames outside, near their patio. Sougrakpam reached for a phone and called 911, while the women each grabbed one of the children. They made their way outside, where residents from the other nearby apartments were also gathering. 

“I came barefooted, just the pajama, and the phone I had used to dial 911,” said Sougrakpam. 

There was no time to get anything else, not even car keys or passports, he said. The Sougrakpams lived in Building 1 of the complex at 2120 Western Ave. There were six apartments in their building.

Sougrakpam told The Enterprise that he is currently in a local hotel; his family — including the newborn — is staying with friends in another state. 

The American Red Cross, according to a release from the agency, provided temporary shelter and financial assistance for food and clothing to eight adults and five children, ages newborn, 3, 7, 14, and 17 years old. Volunteers also supplied comfort kits containing personal care items and stuffed animals for the children.  

Fighting the fire

Westmere Fire Department Assistant Chief Anthony Carrow was first on the scene. 

He said that when he arrived the fire was already heavily involved at the back of the building and that heavy smoke was coming from the front. 

As in any fire, he said, the priority was making sure that residents were safely out. He went to the front of the building, where residents had gathered, and tried to “have a brief discussion with each of them, to determine who is out of which apartment.” 

There was a moment, he said, when he received reports that there might still be a woman and a baby in a basement apartment. So, when the first engine arrived, he said, its instructions were not to take time bringing in the water supply, but to focus on checking that basement apartment. 

But soon, with the help of the Guilderland Police, firefighters learned that all residents were in fact out. 

The next priority he said, was to get all residents out of the adjacent building, Building 2, as well as to break into the top floor of Building 2, to be ready there with a water source, “to ensure that the fire did not spread from one building to another.” 

In that, he said, they were greatly assisted by a firewall that ran all the way from the ground to the peak of the roof, between buildings 1 and 2. 

However, he said, in the past he has sometimes seen, at other fires, cases in which there are “penetrations.” These, he said, could be anything from “contractors extending equipment” such as conduits or piping from one building to another, or even just the smallest crack or deterioration in the concrete. 

“A small little crack — any little opening that fire can go through, with that amount of heat — could end up to be a problem at the adjacent building,” he explained. 

But this firewall, typical of those at Regency Park, held up well, he said. “It did its job.” 

The cause of the fire is still being investigated. 

As additional firefighters arrived, Carrow said, they moved on to the next building. By that point, he said, they knew that Building 1 would be a total loss. 

“The structure was in the process of deteriorating rapidly, and the roof was caving in.” 

By then, he said, two aerial trucks — one in back and one in front — were aiming secured water supplies known as “master streams” on the fire, and, once they were in place, “the fire was knocked down very quickly.” 

Asked if these concrete firewalls are visible from the outside, Westmere Fire Chief Henry Smith said that if you go into an apartment complex and see an extension on the roof area, that’s the top of the firewall that the builder put in to stop any flames from jumping from one unit to the next. 

These walls are common in local apartment complexes, he said. 

Assistant Chief Carrow noted that the fire department had done a “pre-plan” of the Regency Park Apartments complex within the last couple of years. This, he said, is a thorough and detailed study of a building “so that, if and when we do get called to a building, we have a good understanding of it.”

The pre-plan involves learning the number of levels, the occupancy (residential or commercial), construction materials, any hazards, the type of utilities (gas, propane, electric), any egress issues, and location of hydrants. 

The department has done pre-plans for most local apartment complexes, Carrow said, and they continue to do them for other buildings within the district.

This is the second fire in as many years at Regency Park. A fire on May 4, 2014 was caused by a resident’s use of a grill and improper disposal of hot coals on a third-floor back porch. In that fire, too, six apartments were impacted by fire and smoke, and the Red Cross assisted victims.

One thing that Chief Smith would like to see more of in local residences, he said, is sprinkler systems. 

“We have a lot of the houses around our area, especially in Westmere and into Guilderland — some of the houses are steel beams, and they’ve kind of held back with putting sprinkler systems in. That [a sprinkler system] really helps us out. If there was a fire in a residence, the sprinkler system could put out the fire before we even get there,” Smith explained

Smith noted that although there were smoke detectors and carbon-monoxide detectors at Regency Park Apartments, there was no sprinkler system. He said many local apartment complexes have no sprinkler systems.

How unusual is it to have two big fires in Guilderland — the last one a devastating house fire at 7 Ayre Dr. in McKownville — over the course of a week? 

“That’s the unknown with fire,” Assistant Chief Carrow said. “We could be faced with one every day, or we can go months without seeing one at all.”

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Rumors Salon and Spa at 626 New Loudon Rd., Latham, is taking donations of clothing for one of its employees, Venessa Cunsolo, who lived in Building 1 and who is now displaced. Cunsolo is a single mother of two girls, said Delaney Maher of Rumors.  The clothing sizes needed are women’s size 2 or 4, juniors size 0, and children’s size 8 or 10. The store has also established two GoFundMe sites where donations may be made; staff is also planning a fundraiser. For more information, call Rumors at (518) 786-1777.