UPDATED: Apartment complex residents return home after gas, fire scare

About 20 people were allowed to return to their apartments early Tuesday morning after a gas leak and fire scare at the Austree Apartment complex led to the evacuation of the two buildings

Ileen Weisser, a resident of the apartment complex located at 800 Jefferson who made the initial 911 call, said she was doing laundry in the basement when she saw flames come out of the floor drain.

“I was in the laundry room taking my laundry out of the dryer and then there were flames coming out of the floor drain and thats what caught my attention,” Weisser said. “There was (the smell of gas) right away when I first started to my laundry but I didn’t call it in. I could just smell it and that was a big mistake. I should have done it right away.”

Weisser said there was an hour and a half between when she started to do laundry and when she saw the flames.

“I first took my wash out of the dryer and I ran upstairs and called the landlord but I couldn’t get a hold of him. So I decided to call 911 then,” she said. “They told me to get everyone out so I went and started knocking on doors and some people helped me out and started knocking too.”

Brian Shawn, the Red Cross communications director for eastern South Dakota, said the Red Cross was going to set up a shelter at the Vermillion Armory, but stood down after learning the property manager was paying for displaced residents to stay in local hotels. About 20 people were displaced, he said.

“The property manager and the owner of the building have put everyone up in hotels,” Shawn said.

Kase Allison, the property manager of the apartment complex, said he received the all-clear from the fire department at about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning that residents could return to their apartments and started contacting tenants at about 7 a.m. Allison said he was told by firefighters that the gas leak wasn’t natural gas, but gasoline from a nearby business on Cherry Street that had mixed with the sewage system.

“They did some more investigation and they found out there was gasoline out in the main of the street and what had happened was that the gas fumes had travelled up my drain pipe in the utility room,” he said.

Allison said there’s a standing pilot light in the boiler of the building at 800 Jefferson and the floor drain is in close proximity to the boiler unit.

“Well the fumes got bad enough to where it actually lit it,” he said.

There wasn’t any smoke damage from the fire, Allison said, and nothing else in the building caught fire.

“I’m very, very impressed with our local fire department and our first responders with how quick they were able to get there and how well they handled the whole situation,” he said.

According to a news release from the Vermillion Fire Department on Tuesday afternoon, the source of the gasoline and fumes came from a five-gallon bucket that was draining gas into the sanitary sewer system at a business two blocks away.

“Crews flushed the sanitary sewer system to eliminate the threat of further issues,” the release said. “At no time was there a risk to the public or community.”

Abdel Mkadam, a USD senior studying earth science, also lives in the apartment complex. He said the fire department was quick to respond.

“The lady came upstairs and said, ‘There’s a fire in the laundry room’ and came knocking on our doors and we just went. I saw it there was fire coming out of the drain and they told everybody we had to leave,” he said. “The fire department came like five minutes later. They got here pretty fast.”

Mkadam said there are eight apartments in the building and he thought at least 16 people live there.

“I was just surprised that a fire was going to happen here,” he said “Because everyone is adults and I didn’t think anyone was going to burn anything like toast or in a microwave or something.”

As the fire department continued to investigate, firefighters found high levels of gas in the basement and told residents they wouldn’t be able to return until after the gas levels had gone down. Firefighters also started to evacuate other buildings.

Tattianna Toledo, a USD student, was also evacuated from the other Austree Apartment building nearby.

“I heard the sirens… and not too long later the landlord comes into the building and I heard gas leak and said, ‘Oh’ and and I grabbed my laptop, some clothes, my wallet, my cat, my charger and eventually they told us that we had to leave,” she said.

Residents of the area were told that they were able to go back to their apartments for belongings as long as they were escorted by a firefighter.

“This has turned into something much bigger than we expected,” said Matt Taggart, the fire inspector for the VFD.

This is an ongoing story. Check back later for updates. 

Volante editors Malachi Petersen, Rachel Newville and Tatum Dean contributed to this story. 

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