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Teenager charged with reckless use of fire

Neighbor says apartment fire could have been prevented

By Kelby Wingert 6 min read

A teenage boy was arrested and charged on Wednesday in connection to a large fire that displaced eight families in the Westridge Townhomes apartment complex on Sunday morning, according to police.

However, one neighbor says the blaze could have been prevented had authorities heeded their warnings.

The Webster County Telecommunications Center received a call at 1:18 a.m. Sunday with a report that part of a home was on fire. The Messenger obtained the audio of the 911 call through a public records request. In the recording, an unidentified caller told the dispatcher that there was a "small fire" under the panel on the back side of her home at 332 Ave. M West.

The Fort Dodge Fire Department reported that when crews arrived at the scene, they found occupants escaping the building with heavy fire conditions on the rear of unit 332. A third alarm was called to bring additional Fire Department resources to the scene.

According to a release sent out by Fort Dodge Police Chief Dennis Quinn on Wednesday, the fire "appeared to be suspicious in nature" and investigators with the FDPD, the State Fire Marshal's Office and Fort Dodge Fire Department began gathering evidence and speaking with witnesses. That investigation led to a 13-year-old boy being arrested and charged with reckless use of fire, a serious misdemeanor, police reported.

The teenager, who was not named in the release, has been transported to Central Iowa Detention in Eldora and his case has been referred to the Webster County Attorney's Office and Juvenile Court Services for further action.

Eden Estes, who lived in the building with her partner and three kids, was awakened Sunday morning by a pounding on her front door.

"I opened the door and there's nothing but smoke covering everything -- just a blanket of smoke," she said.

Estes said her family was able to safely evacuate the building and they were able to take their dog with them as well. They weren't able to locate their cat until Monday afternoon -- shaken and scared, but alive.

On Monday, Estes alleged that police already knew that a teenage boy in the building had deliberately set the fire, and said she was upset that they hadn't done anything up to that point.

"We all could have died ... People have lost everything. Everything," she said. "Treasures they can't get back, furniture, bedding, clothes."

Estes alleged that the teenager had been playing with fire all summer and that multiple neighbors had reported the incidents.

"All of us in that apartment complex had been complaining about him to police ... All summer, cops come in and out and nothing has been done, no one has done anything with this boy," she said. "All of this could have been prevented."

Estes said that in August, she called the FDPD because the boy allegedly took a lighter and a can of Axe body spray and was "going after" her daughter and her daughter's friends with it. She also said that just a few hours before Sunday's fire, the police had been called on the same boy for allegedly playing with fire.

According to Quinn, the FDPD received a call for service on Aug. 28 for kids allegedly trying to start some grass on fire. The call came in to dispatch as a request to have an officer return a call to the reporting party. There were no juvenile names listed on the call for service and no report was taken on the incident.

Upon request from The Messenger, Quinn searched the calls for service logs dating back to May for 332 Ave. M West and the other units in the same structure and was not able to locate anything related to fire. He also searched through the calls for service on Saturday evening and didn't find any call to the Avenue M West area involving fire in the hours prior to the Sunday morning fire.

The FDFD was fighting the fire to bring it under control until about 3 a.m. on Sunday and remained on scene to extinguish hot spots throughout the building until 7:30 a.m.

The apartment building contained eight units, five of which suffered serious fire, smoke and water damage. The rest sustained smoke and water damage. No injuries were reported.

The FDPD reported that eight families were displaced due to the fire. Estes said each family had children and estimated there were about two dozen people living in the building prior to the fire.

On Monday, Estes said that the property managers at the apartment complex were offering families the chance to move into any vacant units in the complex and the American Red Cross had given each family $800 prepaid cards to pay for hotel rooms. Despite that, she said, several of the families are virtually homeless.

"We went to Section Eight this morning," she said. "We have to pre-file. They don't have any money for deposit, so it's all on us. We don't get paid till the beginning of the month, with a lot of us, so we have nowhere to go. Once this money runs out for hotels, we are literally living out of cars, and a lot of them don't have cars."

Investigators are continuing to follow up on Sunday's fire, Quinn said. Anyone with information is encouraged to contact police immediately by calling the non-emergency number at 515-573-2323. Information can also be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 515-573-1444 or by texting "LEC" and the tip to 274-637.

911 call

Through a public records request, The Messenger obtained the audio of the 911 call from Sunday morning's fire. Here is an unofficial transcript of that call.

Dispatcher: Webster County 911, what's the location of your emergency?

Unidentified caller: Uh, 332 Avenue M West.

Dispatcher: Three-three-two? What's going on?

Unidentified caller: There's a fire underneath, um, the panel on the, uh, um, back of our house.

Dispatcher: OK, there's a fire where?

Unidentified caller: Underneath, like, the panel on the back of our house.

Dispatcher: OK.

Unidentified caller: Like outside our back door.

Dispatcher: [Unintelligible]

Unidentified caller: Um, we are working on it.

Dispatcher: OK, we'll have somebody heading that way. How many people are in the house with you, hun?

Unidentified caller: Uh, we have, um, me and four kids and then, like, three cats.

Dispatcher: OK. Is it a small fire or a large fire?

Unidentified caller: It's a small fire. I know there's, um, some other people in the building, though, and we're trying to knock on their doors too.

Dispatcher: We're getting somebody heading out there, hun, OK?

Unidentified caller: OK.

Dispatcher: Alright, bye.

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