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Weeks after a three-alarm fire at a condo complex on Whipple Avenue left three residents hospitalized, dozens displaced and pets dead, owners and tenants are still reeling.
The structure fire was reported at 5:18 p.m. on May 25 at 1104 Whipple Ave., a 10-unit, three-story building that took about an hour to knock down, Redwood City Fire Department Deputy Chief Shon Buford said.
“Most of it looked like almost normal,” said building tenant Taylor Taylor, whose unit survived the blaze. “But as soon as you start touching things, you realize that everything has a thick and very hard to remove layer of smoke.”
Taylor recalls cooking dinner with her husband and one-year-old baby shortly before the fire, when she began to hear an unusually loud noise coming from the building’s hallway. When she peered into the peephole, “it was just black,” she said.
The second she opened the door, black smoke poured inside and she could hear the fire raging, Taylor said. Right away, she turned to her husband and said, “the building is on fire, we’re jumping out the window.”
They put their shoes on, and her husband immediately launched himself out of the window about 10 feet, she said. Taylor then dropped the baby in mid-air for a couple of feet down to her husband’s raised hands, and she finally helped herself down.
“It was terrifying,” Taylor said. “I had the easier end because I could just hang off the window and then kind of jump down.”
Neighbors from a nearby property hopped the fence to help Taylor’s family and other neighbors out of the complex. Once safe, Taylor immediately worried about the rest of the folks at 1104 Whipple because she knows “pretty much everyone,” having lived in her unit for about two years.
The fire burned through all of the hallways at the center of the building, she said, and blazed inside some of the units as well. Regardless, smoke and water damaged the whole complex.
“Everything for the baby had to get thrown out — everything,” Taylor said, “which is more than anything, frustrating.”
She imagined having another child in the future and having to buy “all of that stuff again.”
Taylor is most sad to have lost her son’s “little house” crib, which her friend gifted her from Switzerland, as well as her 6-foot-tall, Fiddle-leaf fig tree, which she “absolutely loved.”
While Redwood City Fire Deputy Chief Joseph Crivello said there’s no new information about the effects or cause of the structure fire, he confirmed that there was “significant damage,” with four residents evaluated for injuries at the scene and three transported to Stanford Medical Center for treatment, despite reporting four hospital transports initially.
At least 23 people, including 21 adults and two children, were displaced due to the damage caused by the fire, according to the Redwood City Fire Department. Crews searched and located one victim trapped in their apartment, assisting them out through a window and down a ladder.
The agencies that helped the Redwood City Fire Department included the Menlo Park Fire District, San Mateo County Fire Department, CAL FIRE, Woodside Fire Protection District, Colma Fire Protection District, American Medical Response San Mateo and Red Cross.
A work colleague of Taylor’s, Farhad Farahmand, started a GoFundMe campaign two days after the blaze to raise money to help the Taylor family replace their lost belongings. Upon speaking with Taylor directly on the morning of June 16, she said she was interested in splitting the pot with everyone in her building who was affected by the fire.
Over $9,000 has been raised. To contribute, visit the GoFundMe page.
