A sleeping man was able to wake up and escape an apartment building in Arkansas City late Thursday just as flames engulfed the second floor and attic of the structure, fire officials said.
The man ? who has not been identified by name ? was on the first floor when a fire started at the building, which is located in the 200 block of E. Central. With assistance from police, he was able to evacuate the house uninjured before firefighters arrived.
Just before midnight, fire crews from Winfield and Ark City arrived and began to battle a blaze that consumed much of the building’s upper half. The structure had been a rental building for years but no tentants were living there at the time of the fire, according to early reports from the scene.
Firefighters spent considerable time soaking the building with water as flames shot from the roof and smoke billowed from the home and wafted over the nearby downtown area. A cause of the fire was still under investigation, according to Ark City Fire Capt. Les Parks.
Though fire damage was contained mostly to the second floor and attic, the building appears to be a total loss. A throng of onlookers were in the street photographing and recording the fire, which burned for some time before being extinguished.
Investigators and firefighters were on scene well into Friday morning.
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The home is shown on a Google interactive map below:
