UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. Sunday – A man in his mid 50s was the victim of the deadly house fire on E. 11th Saturday night, fire marshal Alan Stoll said Sunday.
The man’s name will not be released by fire investigators until all next of kin notifications are made. Neighbors said they believed the man’s first name was David.
An autopsy will be performed to determine a cause of death.
Few details about the cause of the fire of have been made public but Stoll did say the blaze started in the first-floor apartment where the deceased man lived. The structure is a two-story home that has been divided into four rental apartments.
One apartment is currently vacant and the resident of another unit was not at home at the time of the fire. One other resident was home at the time of the incident and escaped after being alerted by neighbors.
Stoll said the man killed was found in the living room area of his small apartment. It’s possible the man was sleeping when the fire broke out and never awoke or awoke when it was too late.
"Fire never got to him," Stoll said. "It was all of the smoke. People don’t realize how fast that toxic smoke can overcome you."
Most of the damage from the fire was confined to the general area where the blaze began. Damage is estimated at around $10,000.
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Investigators worked well into Sunday morning trying to determine the cause of an apartment fire in Winfield that left one man dead.
Around 10 p.m., firefighters arrived at a two-story home in the 500 block of E. 11th in response to a report of a house fire. Fire personnel had little trouble extinguishing the blaze but found a man inside who was not breathing.
The man has not been identified by name.
Witnesses at the scene said the man was taken out of the home and give CPR. He was transported to the hospital and later pronounced dead.
It was not immediately clear what caused the fire at the house, which is has been divided into apartments for rent.