About 50 residents of a Shawnee apartment complex are looking for new homes after a two-alarm fire burned through most of their building this morning.
The fire at 10807 Oasis Court destroyed 16 units and left two with heavy damage, said Shawnee Fire Marshal John Mattox. Two other apartments in the 20-unit building sustained little damage.
The American Red Cross is helping residents find new homes.
Investigators do not know whether the fire, which they believe started in a basement area that usually is locked and off-limits to residents, was deliberately set.
"We don't have anything to indicate one way or the other at this point," Mattox said about 8:30 a.m.
Eight or nine investigators from the Eastern Kansas Multi-County Task Force will join the Shawnee Fire Department to look for clues in the debris this afternoon. The task force of fire investigators from Johnson, Wyandotte, Leavenworth and Miami counties convenes on big fires that would take one department too much time to investigate alone.
A Feb. 10 fire at the same complex that burned up an exterior wall and into the building next to this morning's fire was ruled arson.
An automatic alarm called firefighters to the Oasis Court Apartments about 1:10 a.m. today, and the first team to arrive called for help when they saw heavy smoke.
Firefighters from Merriam, Lenexa, Consolidated Fire District No. 2 and Overland Park helped put out the fire, which was still smoldering seven hours later.
Within minutes of the first alarm, firefighters traced the worst of the blaze to the basement.
"The first crews were able to get to it, but as soon as they got there, we had to call them out because the floor burned through," Mattox said.
With the weakened floor making the building too dangerous to enter, firefighters poured water on the flames from outside.
Two firefighters were treated for minor injuries after they slipped on the ice outside, Mattox said.
Residents were able to get shelter from the freezing air by 2 a.m. when the Shawnee Presbyterian Church immediately south of the apartment complex opened its doors for them.
