A man died at a hospital after firefighters pulled him from a burning complex.
An elderly man died Friday morning after being pulled from a burning second-story apartment by rescue crews.
The Santa Monica Fire Department rushed to a two-story, garden-style apartment complex at 2628 5th St. around 8:37 a.m., arriving to find heavy smoke and flames billowing from a rear unit on the second floor.
Firefighters faced difficult access points as they pushed into the smoke-clogged apartment to battle the blaze and look for occupants. Crews managed to knock down the flames quickly once inside, stopping the fire from tearing into neighboring units.
During a secondary sweep of the scorched apartment, search teams discovered the unresponsive man. Paramedics rushed him to a nearby hospital, where he later succumbed to his injuries.
Authorities are withholding the victim’s name until his family can be notified. Investigators are still working to determine what sparked the fatal blaze.
Following the tragedy, fire officials urged community members to check their home safety systems, noting that functioning smoke detectors drastically improve survival rates. The department recommends testing alarms once a month, replacing batteries regularly, and keeping all windows and doors clear of obstructions to ensure a safe escape route during an emergency.
