Man severely burned in Tarrant house fire

A man was severely burned and hospitalized from a fire in the Tarrant community on Tuesday morning.

Neighbors report hearing an explosion before the fire started here on the 600 hundred block of Bell Street in Tarrant. Currently, police and fire officials are not confirming an explosion. For now, they have ruled this an accidental fire. Fire officials say they are waiting on an official cause from the State Fire Marshall, but cigarettes were found near a bed in the apartment where the fire started.

One neighbor we spoke with says an explosion came first, one so big that it pushed the door he was opening back onto him. He says a few moments after that, he heard cries for help coming from a house on Bell Street that is broken up into four apartments. Maurice Leonard says he followed the voice and found a man trapped inside one of those apartments between a stove and refrigerator. He tried to free the man and pull him to safety but the fire and smoke proved to be too much for him.

"I went in and it was fire everywhere else. I tried to pull the stove out of the way and I had to run in and back and out by that time the fire department had got here," said Leonard.

Fire officials say the victim was burned, but was still breathing and alert when pulled from the fire. No other apartments were affected in the house.

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