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Authorities say Deaverview Apartments fire was no accident


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Authorities are calling a fire that broke out at Deaverview Apartments on Monday suspicious.

Asheville Fire Department public information officer Kelley Klope said "initial findings are leading investigators to believe that it was not an accidental fire."

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but authorities said the blaze appears to have started in an upstairs bedroom in apartment C in building 21.

While authorities work to find out what happened, the Asheville Housing Authority is working to find people new apartments.

"So, we got a place identified for all the residents except for one,” Asheville Housing Authority executive director Gene Bell said.

The residents are also being given food vouchers.

Bell said firewalls in place to prevent fires from spreading.

"Sheet rock around the furnace in the event that if something happened, it wouldn’t expand through the attics or wouldn't come down to the units itself,” Bell said.

There are also two hardwired fire alarms in every unit.

“It operates off the current,” Bell said. “If something happens, like the power goes out, then the battery is a backup, so it will still beep."

But something still went wrong.

“It appears the fire was in the soffit, which is outside of the actual attic itself, but it ran down the soffit and that's why the damage is so significant in the back."

A soffit is the exposed siding underneath a roof's overhang.

Bell said he’s just thankful no residents were hurt.

“Buildings we can replace, but a life we can’t," Bell said.

Bell said the housing authority is working on improving fire protection.

Anyone who has any information about the fire should call Crimestoppers at 828-255-5050.

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