2 Injured Rescuing Man from Clearwater Fire

An early morning fire that broke out in the kitchen of a Clearwater apartment sent three people to the hospital.

The blaze at 2174 N. Hercules Ave., Apartment A, broke out shortly after 1 a.m. Monday, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office.

A neighbor, Serleen Roug, 34, spotted the flames and tried to alert her neighbor Taylor Edmund, 29.

When Roug received no response from her neighbor, she entered the home and “extinguished the fire that was contained to the kitchen stove,” the sheriff’s office wrote in an email to media.

Family friend Charley Edwin, 44, also went inside to help out.

Edmund, the sheriff’s office said, was found unconscious inside the home. He was taken to Mease Countryside Hospital with life-threatening injuries. As of late Monday morning, he was listed in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.

Both Roug and Edwin suffered non-life-threatening injuries. They were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but investigators say it does not appear suspicious.

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