$500,000 fire damages two SW Redmond apartments

(Update: Damages estimated at $500,000; cause under investigation)

A fire heavily damaged two units of a southwest Redmond apartment complex Wednesday afternoon, causing an estimated $500,000 damage. Two people were taken to St. Charles Redmond with minor injuries, while a dozen were evacuated, officials said.

The fire was reported shortly before 2 p.m. in a ground-floor unit of the two-story Chaparral Apartments on Southwest Rimrock Way. Tenants, apartment staff, Redmond police and Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies worked to evacuate the building, which has a dozen apartments, Redmond Fire Marshal Traci Cooper said.

Cooper said the fire in the first-floor apartment quickly spread to the one directly above it, as well as the attic. Two other adjacent units also had some smoke damage.

It took nearly two-dozen firefighters about a half-hour to contain and extinguish the fire.

A dozen people evacuated from the apartments were relocated to nearby Redmond High School and the American Red Cross was called in to help with disaster response, Cooper said.

Cooper said the investigation into the fire’s cause was just getting underway Wednesday evening.

Another fire official said they’d had a difficult time getting to the burning apartments because some onlookers were in the way.

“We actually had people that were blocking driveways from engines,” said Deputy Fire Marshal Clara Butler. “It was quite a hassle to get them out of the way so we could get in and do our job.”

Mutual-aid assistance was provided by the Black Butte Ranch, Sunriver and Bend fire departments, as well as Redmond police, Redmond High School and Pacific Power