A man was found dead late Friday after an apartment fire in Whitehall Township that forced dozens of residents to flee their homes in freezing weather.
The man, who was about 50, was pronounced dead just before midnight at the blaze at the Spring Ridge apartment complex, the Lehigh County coroner’s office said in a news release Saturday. Authorities listed him as “John Doe” pending positive identification, and said an autopsy will be performed Monday to determine the cause of death.
The American Red Cross of Eastern Pennsylvania initially reported that another person was in critical condition after being injured in the fire. But AJ Suero, a spokesman for the organization, later corrected that statement, saying the woman was hospitalized before the blaze for an unrelated health condition.
The Red Cross was assisting five families — eight adults and one child — who were displaced.
The fire was reported about 9:30 p.m. in a four-apartment unit of the complex at 1308 N. 13th St. Police and firefighters on the scene Friday night could not provide any information about the cause.
Calls to Whitehall Township police and its chief, Michael Marks, were not returned.
On Saturday, investigators from the state police fire marshal’s unit shifted through the shell of a gutted second-story apartment as neighbors and others tried to make sense of what happened.
“It was really, really bad,” said Jordan Wendt, who lives at an apartment adjacent to the units that burned. “You could feel the heat. That’s how hot it was.
“It went so fast,” Wendt said. “It was so quick.”
Nicholas Skrip of Allentown said his daughter and her family were among those left homeless. They lived in the apartment directly under the one the fire destroyed, he said.
Skrip’s wife, Cindy, was at the home at the time, babysitting their infant granddaughter, he said. Skrip said his wife ran out of the apartment with the baby and “absolutely nothing” else.
“She’s getting better,” Skrip said. “She was a wreck last night.”
On Friday night, flames spread through the building, destroying the walls and roof above apartments in the center of the structure. Smoke billowed and firefighters removed windows and searched in several apartments that did not appear directly affected by the blaze.
Jovan Goldston and Jennifer Viera live in the building several doors down. They said there was no noise and no warning that fire was breaking out.
“We just looked outside, everybody saw orange,” Goldston said.
Goldston said he and Viera ran to alert their neighbors.
“We all started banging on each of our doors,” he said.
Viera said she heard one of her neighbors screaming.
Even before news of a fatality, some feared the worst Friday night.
“I just hope there’s nobody in there,” said Louann Bower, who lives in a nearby building. “That’s what I’m worried about.”
Fire crews from Whitehall, Catasauqua and several other Lehigh County communities responded.
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