UPDATE: Tuesday – 4/2/2013, 5:15pm ET
WASHINGTON – A man who suffered severe burns in a fire early Tuesday morning has died from his injuries at a local hospital.
Montgomery County fire officials identified the man as Edward Mager, 63, of Silver Spring.
Firefighters found Mager unconscious outside his apartment in the sixth floor hallway. He was transported in critical condition to a local burn center.
No updates were available late Tuesday afternoon for the other occupants, including a six-year-old child, who were also taken to the hospital.
Their injuries ranged in severity, fire officials say.
Fire officials say the fire began inside an apartment on the top floor of the apartment building but the cause remains under investigation. The blaze caused an estimated $400,000 in damage.
EARLIER: Tuesday – 4/2/2013, 11:00am ET
SILVER SPRING, Md. – Four people have been taken to the hospital, including one man who is in critical condition, after a fire broke out in a Montgomery County apartment complex Tuesday morning.
The fire started around 6:50 a.m. at Montgomery Towers on Silver Spring Avenue.
Firefighters used a ladder to rescue some residents who lived on the upper floors of 415 Silver Spring Ave.
The fire apparently started on the sixth floor of the building.
Some residents said they did not hear the building’s fire alarm.
But Montgomery County Assistant Chief Scott Graham says the alarm did go off.
“You have to wonder what did they hear and what were they paying attention to when they were running out of the burning building?
“We have spoken to many residents who did hear the building alarm. It’s a manual pull station. It was pulled. They did hear smoke alarms,” Graham says.
He also said firefighters going on to the sixth floor heard smoke alarms activated in numerous apartments, and that firefighers silenced the building’s alarms.
The fire closed Silver Spring Avenue between Piney Branch Road and Notle Avenue Monday morning.
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The fire forced residents to evacuate Montgomery Towers on Silver Spring Avenue. (WTOP/Kristi King)
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Some residents told WTOP’s Kristi King the building’s smoke detectors did not sound. The assistant fire chief says they did, but said that people may not have heard it because they were rushing out of the burning building.(WTOP/Kristi King)
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
