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"The residents were found by teams hired by the building owners to assess the security of the structure," said Mayor Muriel Bowser at a press conference Monday.
The man was taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries, Bowser said.
Structural Engineer Allyn Kilsheimer said teams were traveling from the unit to the other Monday to determine if fire inspectors could safely enter the building. They could not enter each unit and sometimes had to open the doors, he said.
"It's at this point that we found this gentleman, who responded when we were making noise at his door," he said.
"He had a sense of humor," Kilsheimer told reporters. "When I said," We are coming to pick you up, "he said," I will not go anywhere. "
The fire broke out at the Arthur Capper Shelter on September 19th.
At the time, DC Fire and EMS officials said in a statement that they had saved more than 100 residents and that everyone was thought to have been taken into account.
DC officials turned to the building management to check lists of residents and determine if all tenants were safe, Bowser said.
"Initially, the management company confirmed that everyone was on the list," said an official from Bowser's office. "Today, they acknowledged that they had not seen him personally, even though they had checked other people on their list."
The owners of the building were asked to check again for someone else, Bowser said. The research was done by DC Fire, EMS and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, she said.
There were 161 occupied units in the complex, Bowser told reporters. The "vast majority" of these residents have asked for help to be placed in transition hotels.
But there is another group of residents with fewer than 30 people who would be with their family or friends.
"We are re-checking to make sure they are counted," she said.
Kilsheimer stated that the fire department used canines to check each building unit.
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