One man is dead and three firefighters are recovering from injuries after a Dearborn County fire Friday morning.
Emergency crews were called to a building on Export Street just after 3:30 a.m. When they arrived, they found a two-story building, consisting of a ceramics store and two apartments, on fire.
Chief Jeff Lane told News 5 that he and two other firefighters were going down an alley to check on the two men who lived in the apartments when there was an explosion in the building, and a brick wall fell on them.
"I heard a loud boom, and the next thing I knew, I was on the ground," Lt. Donnie Dick said. "We got the chief -- he was under a bunch of rubble -- and turned around and tried to find a way out. It was dark."
Lane and Dick were treated at the scene, while the third firefighter, Joss Walker, was transported to Dearborn County Hospital for treatment.
None of the firefighers suffered serious injuries.
One of the two men living in the building, Carl Weimeyer, said that he heard his neighbor, Kenny Goodpaster, yelling for help from the other apartment, but he was unable to get through the locked door to help him.
"You could hear him in there saying, 'Help me, help me,'" Weimeyer's son said. "But (my father) couldn't get his door open because of his deadbolt, and (my father) kept telling him to unlock the door, and by that time, the smoke was getting too bad and he said he had to leave."
There is no word as to what started the blaze. An official from the state fire marshal's office is at the scene.
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