Fire fighters gather outside of an apartment building on Belmont Drive. A disabled man was found engulfed in flames inside a fourth floor apartment Sunday night.
(ALEX WEBER, The London Free Press)
A disabled man is dead after fire crews found him engulfed in flames inside his south London apartment Sunday night.
The man, whom residents say was bed-ridden and needed a wheelchair to get around, lived in a fourth-floor apartment of a building that houses many disabled people on Belmont Dr.
Firefighters responded to the fire call shortly before 8 p.m.
When they arrived they found heavy smoke inside the man’s apartment, before discovering him ablaze.
“The individual was sitting on a sofa or a couch . . . that sofa or couch was consumed by fire,” said Platoon Chief Jeff Adams. “The individual was also handicapped.”
Adams said fire fighers initially believed marijuana plants were inside the apartment after spotting plants growing under a heat lamp with aluminum foil around them, but after further investigation it was determined the plants were simply bell peppers.
“There were quite a few plants that fell down when fire crews went in,” he said.
London police cordoned off the apartment and were investigating. While the fire was contained to the man’s apartment, much of the fourth floor was filled with smoke.
Adams said because many of the residents in the building are handicapped, they were unable to get out and took to their balconies instead. Fire crews instructed them to stay put and told them to call 911 if they had a medical emergency, Adams said.
There was no indication of what caused the fire or how much damage was done Sunday night, according to Adams.
