Elderly man dies after Lake Worth fire, police say; dog rescued in good condition
An elderly man was pulled from a raging house fire in Lake Worth on Friday morning with critical injuries and later died in a hospital, according to Police Chief JT Manoushagian.
Firefighters were able to rescue a dog that is reportedly in good condition at an animal shelter.
Lake Worth police was the first agency to arrive at the fire in the 4600 block of Williams Spring Road late Friday morning, Manoushagian said in a live video on the department Facebook page. Officers had recently been to this address, he said — they were responding to the home on Thursday for an undisclosed reason when they noticed the sole elderly occupant didn’t have air conditioning. Police worked with a local business to provide him with a portable air conditioning unit as well as a church that offered him financial assistance.
The “community came together and worked to make this situation better for this elderly person,” Manoushagian said. Flash forward to Friday morning, he said, and firefighters and officers were dispatched to the same home.
Officers who saw smoke billowing from the residence tried to enter through several doors but couldn’t get past the flames because they lacked appropriate equipment, he said. When Lake Worth firefighters arrived, they entered through the front door and found the man a few feet inside. They took him outside, where they began to perform CPR on him.
He was transported to a hospital in critical condition, Manoushagian said. Around 7:30 p.m. Friday, police posted on Twitter and Facebook that the man had died.
His identity will be released pending notification of next of kin.
“Because so many members of our community came together to help this gentlemen and to do the right thing there has been a larger than normal amount of people who are interested in this case,” Manoushagian said in the Facebook video. “So rather than reply to all the different messages that we were receiving online, we thought it would be best to just go direct with you and do a quick live video.”
Firefighters from Fort Worth and Saginaw also responded to the scene on Friday, he said, and a member of one of their crews found the dog inside the home.
In a Facebook comment, police said: “We just received word from the Animal Shelter that the dog is in good condition and is expected to make a full recovery.”
The fatal fire was made even more tragic by the fact that law enforcement had recently helped the man, Manoushagian said, and he added it was important to provide this context so people can understand what some officers and firefighters are going through.
It’s “certainly a sad situation,” he said in the video, which was posted before the man died. He asked the community to join officers in praying for the man.
Police urged people on Twitter to keep the man’s family in their thoughts and prayers.
Lake Worth police didn’t announce a cause of the fire.
The extent of the fire, smoke and water damage on the home was unclear.
This story was originally published July 11, 2020 at 9:53 AM.
