WASHINGTON (WHDH) - Five days after a fire ripped through a senior living apartment complex in Washington, D.C., a 74-year-old man was found trapped inside.
Crews are calling the elderly man lucky to be alive after a fire burned through the top floors of the public housing building last week, leaving him stuck.
Structural engineer Allen Kilsheimer was surveying the damage when he realized the man was still inside.
“If I had to use crowbars and construction workers to get through his door, he would’ve had to use them to get out, so there was no way for him, in my opinion, to get out,” Kilsheimer recalled.
Police and fire crews rescued the man Monday after the company that manages the building originally said every resident was accounted for.
Authorities are now doing one more sweep of the building to make sure no one else is inside.
The elderly man was taken to the hospital but is expected to be OK.
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