Published: June 06, 2009 08:49 am      

Tenant flees fire

Lebanon — A defective stove is considered the source of a fire that caused $10,000 damage to a unit at Eastwood Apartments, 323 N. East St., Friday.

Tenants of Building C were evacuated; there were no injuries.

Tenant Russell Sutor had cooked some catfish for his mother, then turned off the stove so he could take the meal to her, said Lebanon Fire Department Investigator Robert Wirey. Sutor told Wirey he’d had problems with the stove controls.

Returning about 5 p.m., Sutor opened his apartment door to face a flash of flame, Wirey said.

Sutor snatched a fire extinguisher from the hallway, but it did not work. The extinguisher had last been inspected a year ago, Wirey said.

Sutor rescued his cat, grabbed a crossbow, and fled the unit.

While smoke detectors in the hallway worked, neither of the two smoke detectors in Sutor’s apartment were functional, Wirey said. One had a dead battery; the other, no battery.

Engines from Lebanon Fire’s two stations and Center Township responded. A half-block of North East Street, north from West North Street, was temporarily blocked by Lebanon Police so a 5-inch-diameter supply hose could be stretched from a hydrant to an engine.