FORT SMITH -- A 4-year-old girl died in an apartment fire Tuesday morning, according to a Fort Smith fire marshal.
Ronnie Rogers said the father of the girl, whose name was not released Tuesday, told him he was sleeping in a back bedroom with his son and daughter in the apartment in the 300 block of South 14th Street when his son woke him up. Rogers said the man reported that flames were all around him.
He said the man and his son, who suffered smoke inhalation and singed hair, ran from the apartment. Neither were taken to the hospital but were checked out by medical personnel on the scene, Rogers said.
Outside, Rogers said, the man realized that his daughter did not leave with them, but the flames were too intense for him to go back inside to get her.
The apartment, a middle unit on the ground floor of a six-plex behind a larger house, was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived on the scene, Rogers said. He said he didn't know Tuesday how many of the other apartments were occupied.
Neighbors called 911, and the Fire Department was dispatched at 10:01 a.m., Rogers said. It took about two minutes for the first unit to arrive on the scene. Two ladder trucks, three pumpers, a rescue unit and an ambulance responded to the alarm.
The firefighters had to extinguish the flames in the apartment before they could get inside to search, Rogers said. The girl was found on their initial search, but they realized efforts to try to resuscitate her were useless, he said.
It appears the fire started from an electrical outlet short-circuit in the living room, Rogers said. He said there were no smoke alarms in the apartment.
In addition to the apartment that burned, he said, apartments upstairs sustained smoke damage while other downstairs apartments had smoke and water damage.
Metro on 12/17/2014