Jurors hear 911 calls from Castle West fire victims

Pure panic.

That's what jurors in the arson trial of Derrick "Nicky" Johnson in the Castle West Apartments fire heard Thursday as prosecutors played recordings of 911 calls from frantic residents of the 135-unit complex that burned Jan. 16, 2007.

Johnson, 25, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and arson in connection with the fire that killed Joe Santoyo, 52, and Clemente Perez Salgado, 32.

Prosecutors allege Johnson was upset with his girlfriend, who was staying there, and threatened to burn down the complex shortly before the early morning fire started.

The first call came in at 12:48 a.m. from Candice Cole.

"Help! There's a fire. Please hurry," Cole said, breathless.

The dispatcher tried to calm her down as she escaped to her balcony, but she still couldn't breathe. She hurt her ankle, likely by leaping from the balcony, according to the recording.

Dozens of calls poured in to dispatchers, who tried to keep people calm and urged them to wait until firefighters could rescue them from the balconies.

The girlfriend Johnson whom allegedly threatened, Najua Bell-Jackson, called after she had escaped her second-floor apartment. Investigators determined the fire was started outside her apartment with gasoline, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Margaret Vellar.

"Oh my God," Bell-Jackson said on the recording. "I'm at Castle West. Someone started a fire outside my apartment. I don't know what's going on. ... I see real bad flames."

Colorado Springs Fire Department Battalion Chief Rich Brown was the first firefighter on the scene, from Station 7 on Academy Boulevard and Palmer Park. The Castle West Apartments were near Uintah Street and Academy Boulevard. Brown arrived within one minute of getting the call.

"As I turned left on Academy, I can see a header (the top of the fire)," Brown testified.

"There's a tremendous amount of smoke, indicating this is the real thing."

As he got closer, Brown could see people ducking on their balconies, smoke pouring over their heads in the "bitter cold" night. One entrance was fully engulfed in flames, the other had "thick, pressurized smoke coming from it," he said.

"If they were going to get out, it wasn't going to be from either of those entrances," Brown testified.

About 110 firefighters on 22 trucks, engines and pumpers rushed to the scene. Brown immediately ordered them to "rescue mode," which meant they only tried to get people from the building instead of fighting the fire.

Firefighters rescued about 85 people from their balconies using ladders, he said. Five firefighters were hurt by falling on the slippery ice.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Donna Billek played a videotape of the fire, taken by a KKTV cameraman about 90 minutes after the fire started.

Brown described how the quick-moving fire burst through the roof within minutes.

"That's a bad place to have firefighters so I said ‘all out,'" Brown said. "The fire was rolling unchecked in a lot of areas."

Rescuers weren't sure what to do with the residents, many clad only in their pajamas in 2-degree weather, Brown said. The Springs of Life Church nearby offered its building, and they used that for a staging area.

"This is a classic view of the enormity and just how much was burning there," Brown said during the video.

The fire wasn't declared under control until 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 18, 2007.

The trial will resume Monday.

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Contact the writer: dennis.huspeni@gazette.com or 636-0110