A house fire claimed the life of a man in Philadelphia early Thursday morning.
The fire started about 12:30 a.m. inside a home in the 1900 block of Brunner Street in the city’s Nicetown section.
When firefighters arrived, they were able to place the fire under control quickly.
When they entered the home, they found the victim on the first floor. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fire officials said there were no working smoke detectors inside the home.
“They key point here is that you have to have working smoke alarms and you have to have a home escape plan,” Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer explained.
Sawyer believes if a working smoke detector was inside the home, the situation would have been much different.
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“We do know that if this person had a working smoke alarm that they should have been able to get out,” Sawyer said.
The victim’s name was not immediately released.
The cause remains under investigation.
This is the 13th fire-related fatality this year compared to 35 at this time last year.
