Port Angeles: Family lauded for alerting apartment dwellers to deadly fire

PORT ANGELES — When Lou Seelye’s wife spotted flames shooting from an apartment opposite the family’s back yard late one night, Lou did what he figures anyone else would’ve done.

He pounded on doors, woke up the neighbors and tried to push through the door of the burning unit until firefighters arrived.

“I don’t feel that it’s anything that most ordinary people would not have done as well,” Lou, 55, said Tuesday.

But the city fire chief credits Lou, his wife, Debbie, and their daughter, Kristy, with saving several lives during the March 1 fire at the Lincoln Square Apartments on Lauridsen Boulevard that killed 46-year-old Daniel F. Sullivan.

During a City Council meeting Tuesday night, Port Angeles Fire Chief Dan McKeen presented the Seelyes with a framed letter signed by Mayor Richard Headrick and himself, recognizing the family for their “outstanding efforts” in acting quickly and assisting occupants of the apartment building.

“It is clear your heroic efforts may well have saved lives,” McKeen read from the letter.

The recognition prompted a standing ovation in the council chambers.

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