74 year old man spent 5 days in DC Home Home

A 74-year-old man spent five days inside his apartment in a collapsed old home after a devastating fire ravaged the southeastern Washington building.

Workers who searched the building on Monday morning found the elderly person injured in his apartment in the Arthur Capper Senior apartments in the Navy Yard neighborhood, said Mayor Muriel Bowser, at a conference of press Monday afternoon.

The man would have been inside his apartment from the moment the fire broke out Wednesday afternoon, then the crew found it Monday morning.

"It seems, according to the report I received from construction workers, that he was sitting in his apartment," said Mr. Bowser. "The workers helped him in a chair and out of the building."

The man, whom the officials did not identify, was rushed to the hospital with non-fatal injuries.

Structural engineer Allyn Kilsheimer was one of the people who found the man. He and others were passing through the building unit by unit to try to determine if the apartments could be reintroduced safely. Using a crowbar to open an apartment door on the second floor, a man came to the door. Stunned, Kilsheimer said that he would help the man to go out.

"I'm not going anywhere," Kilsheimer said.

The man had no electricity and was confined to his apartment because the door was blocked, he was in a good mood, said Kilsheimer.

"For someone who has been in this situation for as long as that, he seemed incredibly fit, from my point of view," he said.

The man wanted to go out, but the workers forced him to sit on a chair and get himself executed.

Bowser said Wednesday, in the hours following the fire, that the Edgewood Management Property Management Company called the tenants after the fire and that each person was taken into account.

The mayor said she was not aware of any family member looking for the man.

City officials said that they still did not know why the Edgewood management had apparently considered it safe, or why the rescuers had not found it. man during their stay.

"They may have missed the apartment," said Fire Chief Gregory Dean, referring to firefighters and EMS teams.

Dean defended his crews.

"You have people, men, like all of us, who are trying to do very hard work in difficult circumstances," he said.

Crews searched the building little by little Monday to make sure no one else was there.

Many apartment residents said they did not hear an alarm after a strong fire broke out around 15:30. Wednesday, wounding 10 people and sending a huge plume of black smoke in the air. Instead, US residents were alerted by US Marines and their neighbors who knocked on their door.

Dean told News4 that he had heard several reports stating that wall fire alarms were not working when they were fired.

"No one heard horns, it's quick notification, that's what was missing in this building," he said.

Bruce DarConte, a neighborhood advocate, ran into the building located in the 900 block of 5th Street SE to help his neighbors out. He said that he and others have fired wall fire alarms in the hallways, but nothing has happened.

"As we saw the fire alarms, we were shooting them – nothing, so we continued to move forward, which did not allow us to stay there," he said.

The fire chief said Thursday that the smoke detectors inside the apartments would have worked. On the lower floors of the four-storey building, the smoke detectors and the sprinkler system were not activated because they were not exposed to smoke or flames, Dean said. It was not clear if the alarms or sprinklers were activated in the upper floors.

The fire department reportedly stated that the fire had started in the attic.

Last year, the building was inspected by the fire department and the alarm system was checked three times in the past year, most recently in April, Dean said.

Resident Cherie Gibson said she had not heard or seen any urgent alerts.

"The alarm did not go off, our sprinklers did not go out," she said.

A man who helped his elderly father get out of the building also said that he had not been alerted.

"No sprinklers exploded, nothing went out," said Louis Watts.

Residents of all 161 units of the building have been evicted from their homes without delay to know when they will be able to pick up their belongings or return.

Nearly 90 residents visited a shelter on Wednesday night. Many were picked up by family members. By Thursday morning, 44 people were still in the shelter. They went to the hotels later in the day.

The Near Southeast Community Partners Community Organization raises funds to help the victims of the fire. The Capitol Hill Community Foundation is also a fundraiser. Ward 6 Councilor Charles Allen sent information to locals regarding this fund.

Ten seniors were taken to hospital for non-fatal injuries after the big fire. Residents were driven to safety, some in wheelchairs.

Flames and a huge plume of black smoke could be seen from afar, and thick smoke covered the neighborhood. Three hours after seeing the flames, the fire was still raging. A dramatic video shows the collapse of the roof of the building.

The fire lasted more than eight hours on Wednesday. On Thursday, firefighters were still extinguishing hot spots.

About 100 US marines headed for the building and took elderly people from their apartment after spotting the smoke, said the fire chief. You could see marines and other people heading towards the building pushing stretchers and wheelchairs.

"We all went there to transport people," said Captain Trey Gregory live on News4. The Marines took some residents out by carrying them on their shoulders, he said.

The Washington Navy Yard is located two blocks south.

Firefighters OC saved several people using ladders.

A woman helped her grandmother, who uses a wheelchair, get out of the building. They crossed the corridors engulfed by the smoke.

"I could not breathe, she could not breathe and we could not see anything," said the woman, almost in tears.

D.C. firefighters arrived shortly before 3:30 pm More than 100 firefighters were on scene at 4 pm Firefighters in Prince George County, Maryland also responded.

At approximately 8:00 pm, fire officials reported that they had confined the fire in the building. The firefighters were still fighting the flames at 11:30 pm They advised neighbors to close their windows and stay indoors to avoid smoke.

Van Ness Primary School, located nearby, was scheduled to close Thursday due to poor air quality.

Last Thursday, the Department of Energy and the Environment decided that the air quality was good.

Teams work to determine the cause of the fire.

The affordable apartment building was completed in 2007 and has 162 units, says the website of DC Housing. The apartments were built on the former site of the Arthur Capper / Carrollsburg social housing complex, which the city demolished in 2007. The complex had more than 700 homes.

The fire chief said Wednesday's damage could have been more serious.

"We lost no life, we lost a piece of property," he said.