A person died early Saturday morning after a fire tore through a home in Smyrna, Delaware, according to the Delaware State Fire Marshal. Firefighters arrived to find heavy flames pouring from the single-story house and pulled the victim out, but life-saving efforts at the scene were not enough to save them.
Fire companies were alerted around 3:30 a.m. to the blaze, according to WBOC, which placed the fire in the unit block of North Albright Drive. NBC10 Philadelphia, however, reported the blaze at the unit block of North Albright Street, leaving the exact street name unclear. Citizens Hose Company first responders found the person inside the home and pulled them out, after which paramedics attempted to save them, per NBC10's reporting.
Crews Battled Heavy Flames On Arrival
When firefighters reached the house, they were met with heavy fire already pouring from the structure, the station's report states. Crews immediately began search-and-rescue efforts alongside fire suppression tactics, working to get inside the single-story home as flames spread. Despite those efforts, the person pulled from the house was pronounced dead at the scene, per the same account.
A wide range of agencies responded to the scene, according to NBC10's reporting, including the Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office, the Smyrna Police Department, American Legion Ambulance, Kent County paramedics, and the Division of Forensic Science, in addition to Citizens Hose Company. As of Saturday, officials had not released the identity of the person who died, per NBC10.
Cause And Smoke Detectors Still Under Investigation
Investigators had not determined the fire's origin or cause as of the latest reporting, and the Delaware State Fire Marshal's Office was continuing to investigate, per the WBOC report. The house sustained heavy damage, and investigators were also working to determine whether it had been equipped with smoke detectors, according to the same outlet.
Nationally, fatal residential fires tend to cluster overnight: a U.S. Fire Administration report found that the eight-hour window between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. accounted for 45% of fatal residential fires, and that smoke alarms were absent in 24% of fatal fires in occupied residential buildings. Those figures offer broad context on fire risk but are not tied specifically to what happened in Smyrna.
Fatal house fires are not unheard of in the Smyrna area. Citizens Hose Company has previously responded to a working house fire with a possible trapped occupant at a residence in Smyrna Landing, according to the company's own incident gallery, in a call where crews also found a victim who did not survive. In that earlier incident, crews additionally rescued a cat from the home and handed it off to EMS for care, per the same source.
