An investigation
is underway into a deadly fire at a residential hotel
in Oakland that killed one person and injured two
others this morning.
The fire was in the hotel on Jackson Street just
a block from Lake Merritt.
Adam Friedman lived on the top floor of the hotel.
He says he woke up to smoke alarms and chaos at four
this morning. "I smelled it before I realized
what it was and I should have been more mentally alert
and gotten out of there sooner," he said.
Friedman was one of 80 people evacuated from the
hotel. One person on the 5th floor did not make it
out. He was badly burned in his studio unit.
Many of the people who live in the hotel are elderly
and many are physically or mentally impaired, which
slowed the evacuation.
"If there's only one stairwell, you've got firefighters
going up, people coming down, that's always going
to be a significant problem. We usually try to make
sure that residents have one way of getting out and
firefighters take a different way," said Fire
Captain Melinda Drayton.
There is no apparent cause yet for the fire.
|
