Fire in Dyer leaves one man dead, four others rescued

DYER, Tenn. – “I was in the living room. I saw a whole lot of bright lights just flickering on and off,” said neighbor Heather Sanders.

Firefighters were called out around 3 a.m. for reports for reports of heavy smoke and the sound of smoke alarms going off at an apartment complex located on East Maple Street in Dyer.

“So I come outside on the porch and see a whole lot of smoke out that window and I saw a woman getting rushed out the house on a stretcher,” Sanders said.

Once firefighters arrived on the scene, they saw smoke coming out of the two-story apartment. Fire crews say they removed a man, in his early 20s. They performed CPR but say he later died.

Investigators say four other people who were inside of the apartment at the time of the fire were able to get out safely.

“I know there was a stretcher, a second stretcher. I was like oh my God, they were rushing in from that end of the building. It took a couple of hours for them to put that fire out,” Sanders said.

One of the people who was rescued was taken to Jackson-Madison County General Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. The others were checked out by EMS on the scene and were later released.

Fire investigators say the cause was an accidental cooking fire.