Man seriously injured during late night fire in Northeast DC apartment

Editor’s Note: This article was updated from an earlier version that reported both firefighters were probationary. 

D.C. Fire and EMS officials say a working fire in a 6th-floor apartment has led to the hospitalization of an adult man.

The fire happened in the 1000 block of North Capitol Street in Northeast, D.C.



Officials with the fire department say they responded to the fire in a 12-floor apartment building in the area. They have since extinguished the fire.

While first responders were attempting the fight the flame, they removed one victim from the apartment, a senior citizen who was injured in the fire. Those injuries were considered serious but not life-threatening.

A spokesperson for the fire and ems department did not say what they believed caused the fire but confirmed that flames were confined to the apartment.

Two firefighters, Darrell Johnson and Vincent Cook, said that they arrived at the apartment and noticed the senior citizen was injured. Johnson is a probationary firefighter.

“As we located the fire, we noticed there was a victim to the left of us,” Cook said. “My hook man, probationer Johnson, was actually the one who pointed him out.”

Johnson added that the two firefighters held to their training, gladly assisting the injured person and extinguishing the ongoing fire.

This is only the Johnson’s fourth shift since he graduated from their training program.

WTOP’s Juan Herrera contributed to this report.

Ivy Lyons

Ivy Lyons is a digital journalist for WTOP.com. Since 2018, they have worked on Capitol Hill, at NBC News in Washington, and with WJLA in Washington.

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