Fire kills assisted-living resident

JONESBORO - A Jonesboro man died in a fire Tuesday afternoon at an assisted-living complex near St. Bernards Regional Medical Center, authorities said.

The fire began in a second-floor apartment of the three-story Aspen Gardens building on Rains Street about 12:30 p.m., said Capt. Eric Simmons of the Jonesboro Fire Department.

Craighead County Coroner Toby Emerson identified the man as Lonnie Holt, 74, and said he appeared to have died from smoke inhalation. A family member at the scene said Holt had lived in Aspen Gardens for 11 years.

Several residents were taken to St. Bernards about three blocks away and treated for smoke inhalation, Emerson said.

Firefighters used ladder trucks and aluminum ladders to rescue several residents who stood on second- and third-floor balconies to get away from the smoke, Simmons said.

Officials evacuated about 50 people who live in the complex. They were taken to a shelter at the Jonesboro International Studies School on Cobb Street near the apartment complex, said Aspen Gardens manager Whitney Teague.

“We’re waiting for the Fire Department to tell us it’s OK to go back inside,” Teague said. She added that she expected some residents could return to their apartments late Tuesday.

The fire was quickly contained to Holt’s room, Simmons said. Firefighters began ventilating the complex within two hours of the fire, using high-pressured fans to blow smoke out of the red-brick building.

Simmons said the cause of the fire was undetermined Tuesday afternoon, and fire marshals will investigate today.

Some residents and their family members stood outside the complex, hugging as they watched firefighters enter the building wearing air tanks and breathing masks. A white coroner’s van was parked near the front door.

By late afternoon, someone had lowered a flag outside the complex to half-staff.

A woman who said she lives in a house about three blocks from the apartments said she was awakened by a loud explosion about 12:30 p.m.

“It shook me wide awake,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “I thought it was an earthquake. My kids were outside, and they felt it. It was very loud.”

The woman said she walked to Aspen Gardens and saw smoke billowing out of a second-floor balcony.

Workers with the American Red Cross will meet with residents to help with emergency needs resulting from the fire, spokesman Brigette Williams said.

“Red Cross mental health responders are on the scene to provide needed emotional support to those displaced by the fire, as well as arriving family members of those living in [the complex], Williams said in a news release.