REX HALL JR.
Kalamazoo Gazette (Michigan)

KALAMAZOO - When a methamphetamine lab caught fire inside an upper-floor unit at Fox Ridge Apartments on Tuesday, nine people ran, police said.

A 10th person, who was in a wheelchair, was left to fend for herself.

A neighbor eventually helped the woman escape the blaze, which started at about 11:50 p.m. and spread quickly through the building at 1509 Alamo Hills Drive, said Capt. Joseph Taylor, commander of the Kalamazoo Valley Enforcement Team. Investigators had identified several suspects believed to have fled the woman's apartment when the one-pot meth lab ignited, but they had not located any by Thursday afternoon, Taylor said.

"We have some good suspects, and I'm optimistic that we're going to have some resolution here down the road," he said.

Suspects who police have been able to identify are "well known to be meth cooks, and (KVET has) dealt with them in the past," the drug unit's commander said.

No one was injured in the fire, which damaged 15 apartments in the 30-unit building and displaced 29 families. Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers brought the blaze under control in about an hour, and investigators later found the meth lab in the apartment in which the blaze started.

Taylor said his drug-enforcement unit had received more than 300 tips of meth activity in Kalamazoo County this year and that he fears that meth-lab fires will become more routine as KVET's resources are stretched further and more cooks begin to move indoors this fall.

"We simply don't have the resources to even address the tips," Taylor said. "It truly is an epidemic. Unfortunately, this is not the end of meth fires ... especially when the cold weather comes in the fall."

The Greater Kalamazoo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross is providing assistance to Fox Ridge residents displaced by Tuesday's fire. Red Cross spokeswoman Vicki Eichstaedt said the agency had provided $12,500 in direct assistance to 27 of the 29 families affected by the fire as of Thursday afternoon.

Fifteen people stayed overnight Wednesday at a shelter set up at Hillside Middle School on Alamo Avenue. Eight people remained at the shelter Thursday, but all planned to leave by afternoon, Eichstaedt said.

Red Cross officials say a spate of disasters, including floods and several other apartment fires in the Kalamazoo area over the past year, have strained the local chapter's resources and that the agency is seeking the public's assistance.

Officials said anyone wishing to make a donation to the local Red Cross should call (800) RED-CROSS, go online to www.redcross.org or visit the chapter at 5640 Venture Court in Oshtemo Township.

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July 3, 2009