Firefighters pull man from burning apartment unit in south Sacramento

An apartment fire in south Sacramento injured one man Friday night, resulting in his hospitalization.

The Sacramento Fire Department, in a social media update, said that a fire had broken out at an apartment complex on the 6200 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard just before 6 p.m. There are several apartment complexes in the unincorporated Lemon Hill area, including the Southaven Apartments and the Summerset Apartments.

A second-floor housing unit in the complex had caught on fire, and although one person had escaped on their own, fire department spokesman Capt. Keith Wade said a man in a back room of the unit would not have made it out on his own.

A fire engine was sent out from a Sacramento Fire Department station just a few blocks away on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, which knocked down the fire.

Wade said the close proximity allowed for a quick response. Firefighters arrived “before the fire was even dispatched,” he said.

Fire crews managed to restrict the fire to just the one unit, Wade said.

Fire personnel pulled the man from the burning unit and took him to a hospital for smoke inhalation and first-degree burns. As of Friday night, his condition was unknown.

“They truly rescued that guy,” Wade said.

A battalion chief at the scene said that the fire was believed to have been started accidentally, although an investigator still needs to confirm a cause for the fire, according to Wade.