Update: Man Pulled From Burning Building In Shelton Has Died

Photo: Ethan FryUPDATE, 9:43 a.m. Jan. 23:Fire Marshal James Tortora said the victim pulled out of a residence on Howe Avenue last night has died.

Bridgeport Hospital confirmed the death Thursday morning.

The man was identified as Michael Boroski.

Update 12:30 a.m., Jan. 23: Shelton Fire Marshal James Tortora said early Thursday investigators believe a fire that gutted the first floor apartment of a multi-family home on Howe Avenue Wednesday evening was started by a cigarette.

We believe the cause more likely than not was careless use of smoking materials,” Tortora said.

The fire marshal said a 53-year-old man found unconscious by firefighters responding to the blaze was in critical condition in the burn unit at Bridgeport Hospital.

The man was a resident of the apartment and the only one inside it when the fire began. No one else was injured in the blaze.

Tortora and officials from the state fire marshal’s office spent hours Wednesday night sifting through the fire-damaged apartment, analyzing burn patterns and eliminating alternate causes.

We had to piece it back together like reconstructing a car accident,” Tortora said. 

All signs pointed to the blaze being ignited by a cigarette in a couch the man was sitting on in the apartment’s living room, he said.

The home is uninhabitable for the time being, he said. The residents of the house’s other two apartments are staying temporarily with friends or relatives.

Original post from 7:01 p.m. Wednesday follows:

An unconscious man found by Shelton firefighters extinguishing a blaze inside a multi-family Howe Avenue house was transported to Bridgeport Hospital’s burn unit Wednesday evening.

Fire officials at the scene of the blaze — at 593 Howe Ave. — had no further information about the man’s identity or condition.

The fire was reported about 5:18 p.m. by Chris Jones, a firefighter leaving the nearby Boys & Girls Club, Shelton Fire Department Assistant Chief Nick Verdicchio said at the scene.

He saw an orange glow, ran up, saw the flames, came in and saw the smoke, went upstairs and got four people out through the stairs,” Verdicchio said.

I was walking out of the Boys & Girls Club and I heard a smoke detector,” Jones said Monday night. From where my truck was parked I had a clear line (of sight) to the back window (of the house), which had an orange glow.”

As I pulled my cell phone out and started walking closer the window popped,” indicating that a fire was burning inside, Jones said. I just got on the phone and started calling 911 and huffing and puffing up the hill (toward the house).”

He said he ran up the stairs to get the residents of the top floor apartment out of the home, then ran down the stairs and banged on the door of the first floor apartment, but got no response.

He ran around the back of the building to see if anyone was in the basement apartment at the house, then ran back to door of the first floor apartment.

I didn’t want to kick it because I still saw flames coming out of the back window and didn’t want to ventilate it more” and give the fire more oxygen, Jones said.

The flames and heat were too intense for him to attempt getting inside alone anyway, Verdicchio said, but fire trucks arrived shortly thereafter.

The guys made an aggressive attack and went in with a line to extinguish the fire on the fully involved first floor when they came upon an unconscious male on the floor,” Verdicchio said.

The man was then taken by paramedics to Bridgeport Hospital, Verdicchio said.

About 30 firefighters from Shelton’s Echo Hose, Pine Rock, and White Hills volunteer fire companies responded to the blaze. Derby firefighters also responded to the scene.

Fire Marshal James Tortora said at the scene about 6:30 p.m. that he and officials from the state fire marshal’s office would probe the origin and cause of the blaze.

Tortora said the flames was contained to the first floor of the home.

The Red Cross of Connecticut reported Wednesday night that five residents of the home — three adults and two children in two families — were able to make temporary housing arrangements.

Police shut down Howe Avenue in the area of the house, which sits between Wooster Street North and Maple Street, while firefighters were on scene.

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