FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 An elderly man is dead after a fire broke out at a Fresno apartment complex in Central Fresno. <\/p>\n
Just before 6 p.m., firefighters responded N First Street and Weldon Avenue to reports of a fire at a single-story apartment. <\/p>\n
When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke coming from the building and were told someone may have been trapped inside.<\/p>\n
Firefighters immediately began a rescue operation and entered the apartment. <\/p>\n
Inside, crews found heavy flames in a bedroom and located an elderly man, who had died. <\/p>\n
Fire officials say he was reportedly confined to a bed at the time of the fire.<\/p>\n
Elderly man killed in apartment fire that’s left 15 people without homes. (Video Courtesy: Fila Olea)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Firefighters performed a search of the remaining units to make sure there was no one else inside. <\/p>\n
The fire was initially contained to the apartment where it started, but flames spread into the shared attic space, damaging all four units.<\/p>\n
A total of 45 firefighters and personnel responded to the scene.<\/p>\n
Fire officials say 15 residents are now without a home. <\/p>\n
The Fresno Fire Department is working with the Red Cross to provide assistance, temporary housing resources and support to those impacted.<\/p>\n
One additional resident, identified as the elderly man’s sister, was taken for medical evaluation due to her age and condition. <\/p>\n
Officials said she did not appear to have any significant injuries.<\/p>\n
Fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire and the cause of death. <\/p>\n
Officials said the cause of the fire remains under investigation, but investigators believe it started in the bedroom where the elderly man was found.<\/p>\n
The Fresno Fire Department said the building\u2019s shared attic space allowed flames to spread through insulation across all four units. <\/p>\n
PG&E responded to secure power and gas service to the building because of the extent of the damage. <\/p>\n
Utilities will remain shut off until repairs are completed and the structure is restored.<\/p>\n
The Fresno Fire Department is reminding residents that working smoke alarms, early detection, and calling 911 quickly can be critical during an emergency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) \u2014 An elderly man is dead after a fire broke out at a Fresno apartment…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":400253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-400252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/400253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}