Fire at the Conway House leaves 10 residents without a place to live for at least a couple of weeks

Feb. 15--SILVER CITY -- The Conway House -- a seven-apartment building -- caught fire at around 12:50 p.m. Wednesday and left 10 residents without a home for possibly a few weeks.

According to Silver Fire Department Chief Milo Lambert, the cause is being investigated and he is around 95 percent sure what the cause was but won't release any information until an insurance investigator comes Tuesday to conduct their own investigation.

"We were paged out at 12:54 p.m.," Lambert said. "When we arrived we saw smoke and fire presenting itself through the eaves of one of the apartments on the second floor. Fire crews immediately made access to the roof."

Lambert said firefighters made sure it wasn't spreading to other apartments and did an interior attack. They vented small holes in the eaves and then proceeded to make entry into the apartment itself to attack it.

"It was a difficult structure fire because it had a roof and a rooftop patio on top of that," Lambert said. "It took us a little while to get access to it."

But, despite the challenges, the 12 firemen that showed up to battle the blaze were able to minimize the damage and save the rest of the complex.

"I think this fire could have been a tragedy if it wasn't for our fast response time," Lambert said. "Our guys were phenomenal and their quick response was able to make a difference. Out of the seven apartments, only one sustained severe damage. One had water damage and the rest of them are habitable without any loss. That's fantastic and I give my guys Kudos."

Lambert added that all the residents were able to make it out safely and even a cat was able to get out in time. They did have to cut electricity to the building and pulled all the meters. Lambert stated that they have been assisting the tenants in coming back to get clothing and medication and other vital items that they need.

"They all had other housing arrangements," Lambert said. "No one was sleeping in their cars last night."

The wait is going to be on the insurance company coming down and doing an electric evaluation. This should take a few weeks. Lambert said they need to make sure there is no danger by returning power to the structure. As for the cause of the fire, Lambert doesn't want to mislead the investigator that will be here Tuesday and will keep his thoughts under wraps until then.

"Their insurance investigator will come on Tuesday and take a look and together we will see what started the fire," Lambert said. "I don't want to mislead the investigator so I won't say anything. I don't want to put a dent into the insurance process."

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