DAYTON, Ohio --
A Dayton man is dead after fire tore through his apartment overnight.
Callers reported the smoke and flames to fire dispatchers around 1:30 a.m. Friday. Firefighters arrived at a one-story apartment building on Rider Avenue near Germantown Avenue a short time later. They said the building is divided into ten apartments and said they had problems pinning down the source of the smoke and flames.
Many apartments filled with smoke. One apartment resident, Larry Moore tells Newscenter Seven that he scrambled out of his home that was "full of smoke and it smelled like something burning, that's what woke me up."
Firefighters eventually narrowed down the source of smoke to a back apartment. They had to take down windows and a screen to get in and find the male victim. They dragged the man out of the smoke-filled apartment and took him to a waiting ambulance. Paramedics rushed him to the hospital but doctors could not revive him. His identity has not been released.
Fire investigators say this appears to be a mattress fire, a fire that often generates a great deal of smoke even without a lot of flames. They do not yet know how the fire began.
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