TACOMA, Wash. — One person is dead after an apartment complex caught on fire in Tacoma.
911 callers reported seeing smoke coming from a window at an apartment on North Pearl Street just before 8 a.m.
When crews arrived, they immediately began evacuating residents and looking for where the fire originated.
“We basically showed up on scene and immediately started evacuating the entire building as we were trying to find where the fire was actually coming from,” said Chelsea Shepherd, a public information officer with Tacoma Fire.
By 9 a.m., firefighters had put out the flames, but were staying on scene to monitor any hot spots.
A spokesperson with the Tacoma Fire Department confirmed that firefighters found one deceased person in a bedroom on the third floor, which is where they believe the fire originated. That person was the sole resident of their unit.
“Didn’t see smoke, saw no fire – just seeing water and basically got told that they did have a body that came out,” said a neighbor.
Fire officials say three units were damaged, with four people displaced. No one from those units was hurt.
Tacoma police are investigating.
“Very early preliminary cause may have been from a wall heater. We’re looking into that – the wall heater would have essentially ignited something flammable near it and burned through the floor into the ceiling of the apartment below it,” said Shepherd.