Three Killed in Oklahoma Apartment Fire

OKLAHOMA CITY - A fast-moving fire that swept through an apartment building and killed three people early Tuesday was intentionally set, investigators said.

Deputy Chief Cecil Clay said the fire was set in two places on the first floor of the two-story building. Investigators were trying to determine if accelerants were used.

He said police were investigating. No arrests have been made.

The bodies of the three adults who died were sent to the state medical examiner's office for positive identification and a determination on cause of death.

Firefighters were called to the blaze on the city's southwest side at 2:22 a.m. and found flames shooting through doors on the first floor, Clay said.

"They fought their way in and found two of the victims, but they were deceased by the time they got there," Clay said. "They had to exit the building because the structural integrity of the building began to deteriorate quickly."

Two of the victims were on the second floor of the building. A third was found at the bottom of a first-floor stairwell, Clay said.

Six other occupants managed to escape the burning building, Clay said, including a woman who was hospitalized with a back injury after jumping from a window and a man who burned his hand on a door knob and was treated at the scene.

At least one working smoke detector was found on the first floor, and Clay said several residents said it alerted them to the blaze.

"It could have been a lot worse," Clay said. "It could have been all nine of them."

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