71-year-old Cedar Rapids woman killed in apartment fire

CEDAR RAPIDS — A 71-year-old woman has been identified by police as the person who was killed in a fire Tuesday at an apartment building in northeast Cedar Rapids.

The woman, Wasfia Elshannawy, was one of four people taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation and other injuries after the fire broke out at 210 19th St. NE. First responders were called at 2:13 p.m. for reports of fire, which was located on the third floor.

Firefighters and police removed several people from the building through windows using ladders due to the smoke buildup inside in hallways and staircases.

Two cats were killed in the fire, and two others were rescued by Cedar Rapids Animal Care & Control, according to a news release from the fire department. Other pets were still missing, Andy Olesen, the Cedar Rapids assistant fire chief, said Tuesday.

The two cats that were rescued, Peach and Daisy, belong to Anna Peterson, who was one of those taken to the hospital. She was treated for smoke inhalation and a burn on her hand.

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Peterson said she was asleep in her third-floor apartment — sleeping during the day because she works night shift — when the fire started. She woke to the sound of fire alarms and smoke under her door.

“When I was trying to initially escape, there was too much smoke in the hallway for me to even consider trying to venture out and down the stairwell just by feel and not by sight,” Peterson said.

She called 911 and was told to wait in her apartment until the fire department arrived and could help her escape through a window. After trying and failing to wrangle her cats into their carrier, she closed the door to her apartment — burning her hand on the doorknob — so the cats wouldn’t wander into the hallway. She waited by her window and began struggling to breath.

“I started tapping on the window next to me, and I could hear outside, somebody say, ‘Somebody’s in that room. Somebody’s at that window,’ and then I could hear them getting the ladder. I just started pounding on the window because I wanted to make sure that they knew exactly which window there was somebody at,” Peterson said.

First responders broke through her window and helped her down the ladders they had set up. They asked her if anyone else was inside her apartment and she told them her two cats were, but no other people.

Peterson said she didn’t know Elshannawy, her neighbor who died in the fire.

In the ambulance ride to the hospital, Peterson called her husband, who left work and stopped at the apartments on the way to the hospital. He was able to collect a few of the couple’s belongings and found out that the two cats had been found safe.

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“He said the staircase next to our apartment was apparently, at the very least, a major section of the blaze. If it wasn’t the start or end, it was definitely there at one point. So, me deciding not to try to venture down the stairwell might have saved me, because if that’s where the fire was I would have had no idea, because I couldn’t see anything,” Peterson said.

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Peterson and her husband are staying with her family in Davenport while they wait to find out if — or when — they’ll be able to move back into the apartment. Peach and Daisy both have vet appointments scheduled for this week to check for smoke-related injuries, but Peterson said they seem to be doing fine.

“They’re eating. They’re drinking water. They’re not showing any signs of major respiratory distress. They just seem very scared,” Peterson said.

The cause of the fire was determined to be accidental, according to the release, but specifics about what started the fire have not been released as the investigation still was ongoing.

Fire department officials said the fire alarms in the building were functional and were helpful in alerting authorities to the fire. Sprinklers were not required in the building due to its age. City assessor records show it was built in 1966.

The real estate company that manages the apartment building, Freedom REMI, didn’t respond Wednesday to a phone call and email requesting comment.

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com