Open Source: Arson investigation underway at Mount Vernon apartment complex

MOUNT VERNON — Terry Fox was sitting inside his apartment one Sunday morning in July when he heard a piercing ring bellow throughout his room.

It was the smoke alarm. 

He saw no smoke but smelled an odor sneaking in below his front door.  

He opened his door into the shared hallway to find a dancing fire and melting carpet in the second to third-floor stairwell. Fox yelled into the hallway, telling tenants at 105 S. Gay Street, known as The Terrace, to evacuate the apartment complex.  

Fox opened his apartment’s back door, and climbed down the fire escape. 

“I could have died,” Fox said.  

The fire Fox and others witnessed was arson, according to law enforcement officials. And it wasn’t the first fire in the building in the last year. 

The Mount Vernon Fire Department received a call around 8:45 a.m. on July 21 and quickly responded to the scene with mutual aid from surrounding local agencies, MVFD chief Chad Christopher said.  

The fire had started and was successfully contained in the stairwell, according to Christopher, who added that no injuries were reported as all residents safely evacuated the building. 

The State Fire Marshal’s office, alongside the Mount Vernon Police Department, is investigating the arson, Christopher said. 

“I’m afraid I don’t have much information to share other than the fact that investigators have ruled this as arson and we are asking for individuals who might have any information to contact the State Fire Marshal’s tip line at 800-589-2728,” said Tom Brockman, deputy chief communications officer for Ohio’s Fire Marshall Office. 

Christopher noted the last known arson case was in 2017. 

According to the State Fire Marshall’s Office, 

•    2022: 385 of the 953 fires it investigated in Ohio were ruled arson (40%)
•    2023: 462 of the 937 fires investigated in Ohio were ruled arson (49%)
•    As of May 6, 2024: 145 of the 330 fires investigated in Ohio were ruled arson (44%)

Safety measures being added

Although the fire caused only minor water and smoke damage, it displaced all the building’s residents. The tenants stayed at a local Super 8 hotel for four days — three of those days paid for by The  Red Cross and one by the landlord, Mark Hatfield. 

Tenants went back to their apartments July 25, Hatfield said. 

Christopher said the Mount Vernon Fire Department tries to inspect every building at least once a year. However, the department doesn’t have past documented fire inspections on the 105 South Gay St. building.

“Each year we try our best to perform fire safety inspections in our businesses, schools, churches, factories and any other high-hazard commercial building,” Christopher said. “In apartment complexes, with I believe more than four apartments, we can perform a fire safety inspection in the common areas, laundry room if they have one, stairwells and hallways.

“According to our current records, no past building fire safety inspection had been performed.”

Since the arson, smoke alarms for the hallway and emergency lighting by the front and rear building exits have been added, Hatfield said. 

The landlord stated he’s purchasing “security doors” for the front and back building entrances, but didn’t have an estimated completion date as of the end of July. 

Hatfield inherited The Terrace after his father purchased the then near-condemned building in the late 70s, he said.  

He’s operated the building for roughly 10 to 12 years, he said.

Other incidents

In August 2023, a mattress caught fire at The Terrace, displacing tenants to the Super 8 motel for several days.

Hatfield is working with his insurance company and contractor to bring those two apartments up to the current code before putting them back on the market. 

Several tenants said a few weeks ago, a small fire broke out in the second-floor hallway but was quickly suppressed. The origins of this fire are unknown. 

Most tenants who spoke with Knox Pages said they don’t feel safe living at The Terrace.

Hatfield said, “At the time I don’t blame them.” 

 “We got a lot of good tenants there.” 

 Some tenants have lived there for around 15 to 20 years — tenants Hatfield’s father knew, he said.  

“I understand their concerns,” Hatfield said. “The only thing I can say is I do intend to make the  building safe.”