WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – A man was hospitalized Monday evening after a two-alarm house fire in a Seminole County neighborhood, fire officials said.
Crews with the Seminole County Fire Department responded to a home on the 1400 block of Tanner Drive just after 5 p.m. following reports that at least one person was trapped inside.
When firefighters arrived, they encountered heavy fire conditions and a partial roof collapse, which complicated their efforts.
“We did search the structure. We found one and we have confirmed that there was no one else inside of the structure,” Seminole County Fire Chief Matt Kinley said.
Firefighters located a man inside the home suffering from severe burns. He was transported to Oviedo Medical Center in critical condition, officials said.
Neighbors described a chaotic scene as emergency crews rushed into the area.
“I was coming home from the store and I saw like five fire trucks,” said neighbor Linday Hyust. “I thought, ‘What in the world?’ They were really speeding down, and then I saw the ambulance.”
Officials said tight spacing between homes also posed challenges for crews working to contain the fire.
“It’s a very tight area. It’s your typical neighborhood, just very tight with homes,” Kinley said. “We have a lot of hose on the ground, a lot of apparatus moving around.”
Inside the home, firefighters encountered hoarding conditions, which further hindered their ability to navigate and extinguish the fire.
“Our crews did encounter what we would call hoarding conditions,” Kinley said. “Just a lot of stuff on the inside. It makes it a lot harder to maneuver, to put the fire out and search for victims.”
Neighbors said they were relieved the fire did not spread to nearby homes.
“Those homes over there are just really close to each other, so if something happens to one, it’s very likely going to happen to another,” said neighbor Brenda Faulman.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the fire marshal’s office.