Chief says apartment building inspected 50 times before blaze

RALEIGH, N.C. — An apartment building under construction in North Carolina’s capital city had been inspected 50 times, most recently on Monday, before it went up in flames near an entertainment district, the fire chief said Friday.

Several other buildings were damaged when the fire broke out Thursday night, some of them severely, Raleigh Fire Chief John McGrath said at a news conference. A firefighter suffered minor injuries and five people were treated for smoke inhalation, he said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The building’s woodframed construction burned quickly, McGrath said. He said the structure met all code requirements.

“Unfortunately, this building is at the stage when it was extremely vulnerable, before sprinkler systems got in, before fire resistant walls were put up,” the fire chief said.

The fire began shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday in the sixstory building in downtown Raleigh. The fire was under control about three hours later, although smoke was still rising as firefighters continued pouring water on wreckage that had collapsed to the ground.

Accountant Brent Williams and retirement planner Robert Devay said between water damage from sprinklers and the heat of the burning building about 50 yards across the street, they’d probably lost most of what they owned in the two-bedroom apartment they shared. They were watching the NCAA basketball tournament on television when they saw the flames.