Morning Apartment Fire Appears Accidental

The cause of a fire at an East Oakland apartment complex early this morning is still under investigation but at this point it appears that it was an accident and wasn’t suspicious, a fire battalion chief said.

The two-alarm fire in the 6200 block of Eastlawn Street was reported at 1:13 a.m., Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Coy Justice said. When firefighters arrived a few moments later, there was an active fire on the top and bottom floors of the four-unit apartment building, Justice said.

The man and woman who were killed were in the bottom rear unit, he said. It took about an hour for firefighters to bring the blaze under control, according to Justice. The fire was the third at the building since May.

There was a fire on the top front of the building on May 1 and a trash fire inside a bathroom on Dec. 18, Justice said. PG&E stopped providing power to the building after the blaze 10 days ago, so there shouldn’t have been anyone inside the building today, he said. Fire officials don’t believe anyone was in the building at the time of today’s fire besides the two people killed, Justice said.

There’s no damage estimate at this time but the fire caused extensive damage to the building, including heavy smoke damage he said. In addition, three of the four units at the building are uninhabitable at this time, Justice said.

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--Bay City News