Manchester apartment fire labeled suspicious; Bhutanese community especially hit hard

Aug. 08--MANCHESTER -- Nineteen people were driven from their center city apartment building late Saturday night by a fire that authorities said appears to be suspicious.

Investigators with the Manchester police and fire departments on Sunday were trying to determine the cause of a blaze that residents say quickly climbed the exterior, rear porches of 167 Spruce St., a four-story, wood-frame building.

Three of the four families affected are from the Himalayan country of Bhutan, and have families living in apartments in several adjacent buildings on the street.

Parbati Koirala, who lives on the third floor, said she and her family were up at 11:30 p.m. Saturday, preparing for a birthday party for her son, who turned 7 on Sunday.

She saw flickering lights and stepped outside onto her porch.

"I saw flames on the second floor (porch)," she said Sunday outside the apartment. "I said, 'Help!' We called the police. I thought maybe we will die."

Most residents exited through the front stairway.

When fire trucks arrived, firefighters made a sweep of the building, unsure whether residents were inside, said District Fire Chief Hank Martineau.

He said the fire's origin is considered suspicious.

Manchester police Sgt. Richard Brennan said a highly intoxicated man was taken into the custody at the scene Saturday night after police tried to speak to him.

He was not charged in connection with the fire, Brennan said.

Martineau said the building appears to be a total loss.

"Everything inside is either smoke- or water- or fire-damaged," he said.

Damage to the rear of the building indicates the fire likely started on a first-floor exterior porch, then climbed, causing more damage to each higher floor. The fourth-floor porch and the overhang were the most damaged.

Koirala said homeless people have been congregating in the alley, drinking and relieving themselves.

"Before it was good (here), but there are too many homeless people," she said. "They give us a hard time," she said, adding the homeless people don't appear to like her ethnicity.

Koirala said she has no renter insurance, and everything her family owned -- clothes, medicine, household goods -- was destroyed in the fire.

She has lived in the apartment for about four years.

She and a neighbor said the neighborhood was fine when several Bhutanese refugees moved in about four years ago.

The families like to live close to one another because older adults have difficulties learning English, so their children help them out, said Kamal Basnet, 21, who lives next door.

"The last two years, this neighborhood has gotten really bad and dangerous. My mom doesn't want to come out of the house," he said.

He said apartments rent for about $700 a month, which is affordable.

"We can't live in luxury apartments," he said.

Several Bhutanese families have left Manchester for cities in Ohio, and several more are considering doing so, he said.

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