Southeast Anchorage house fire leaves 1 dead

Anchorage firefighters say the only real occupant of an area residence died Tuesday morning after a hearth initially traced to a blocked dryer vent.

An Anchorage Fireplace Division assertion on the blaze, issued Friday afternoon, mentioned a report of heavy smoke close to Elmore Street and Coventry Drive got here in simply after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Responding crews discovered a single-family residence with smoke and hearth seen from its again aspect.

As firefighters fought the blaze, a search of the house discovered the injured particular person, who was taken to a hospital by ambulance however died later that day.

“Investigators have decided the fireplace seemingly resulted from a garments dryer with an obstructed vent,” firefighters mentioned. “Lint and particles from the dryer seems to have contributed to the ignition of the fireplace which grew to contain a part of the house.”

AFD Assistant Chief Alex Boyd mentioned Friday that the fireplace apparently began within the supplies blocking the dryer vent. No one else was discovered within the residence, he mentioned.

Investigators are nonetheless attempting to find out whether or not the house’s smoke alarms had been working on the time of the fireplace. Boyd urged residents to make sure smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms are working, and to have dryer vents recurrently cleaned and serviced.

Tuesday’s hearth was Anchorage’s fourth deadly hearth this 12 months, in line with AFD.