A Bellevue man lost his life when a fire broke out in his apartment. Investigators are sifting through the debris to determine the cause of the blaze.
From early on, investigators believed they were dealing with a fire started by smoking materials. But that has not yet been confirmed by either the state fire marshal or the Bellevue Fire Department. What we know is that John Stewart died Tuesday night.
Fire officials have said that they believe the fire "smoldered" for a while before being discovered and a phone call made to 911.
Audrey Ross slept through most of the excitement. When she was awakened, it was several hours after the fire was extinguished and the investigation was already underway. "I thought their was some teenagers up to something and that worried me because you don't know what kids are going to do these days."
Other neighbors described seeing the thick black smoke that fire crews encountered on their arrival. Audrey wasn't aware of the fire or the fire fatality until Wednesday morning as she was watching the news. "It was a shock, it was too close, it really was and to somebody we knew."
The other apartment was vacant, but both apartments and Pulsar Electronics beneath them all sustained considerable damage from the fire or the efforts to extinguish it.
Channel 6 News did speak with the owner of the apartment building and the owner of Pulsar Electronics. Both men want to repair the damage to the building as quickly as possible and get things back to normal.
