The Coroner has been called to the scene of a fire at a high-rise apartment building in Cambria County. The fire was at the Connor Tower Senior Citizens Apartment Building on Vine Street in downtown Johnstown. Fire Crews were dispatched around 7:30pm Sunday night.
The fire was ruled accidental. The apartment, one unit on the 5th floor, was heavily damaged with fire. Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees calls it “totally gutted.” Its is presumed that occupant who resided in that apartment has been killed by the fire. Residents from inside the 13-story high-rise were evacuated, but they have since returned to their apartments. Fire crews were ventilating the building.
Mick Miller, the Assistant Fire Chief saying: “We saw nothing from the outside, and then when I got up to the fifth floor, found that there was an apartment on fire. We made a quick initial attack on it. Unfortunately, there was a fatality.”
Cambria County Coroner Jeff Lees saying: “It’s just an unfortunate situation any time you have a fire like this, like we’ve been having. It only takes a couple minutes, it only takes a couple breaths to become unconscious because of toxic smoke and gas inhalation.”
State and Local Agencies will be conducting an Investigation. The Coroner’s Autopsy might rely on Dental records and DNA to positively identify the person killed.
