PONTIAC (WWJ) -- A 75-year-old man from Pontiac is in critical condition following an apartment fire that left second degree burns on more than 80% of his body.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office and the Waterford Regional Fire Department responded to a call on Sunday at the apartment complex on Colony Lane following reports of a man in the hallway who was on fire.
Upon arrival, deputies discovered the man was still smoldering. Fire officials extinguished the fire, and then removed the victim’s clothing.
A neighbor told the sheriff that she heard the man yelling “fire.” When she went into the hallway, saw him fully engulfed in flames, and attempted to put out the fire with a blanket and a fire extinguisher.
Deputies spoke to the victim’s daughter, who had been on the phone with her father when his oxygen tank had apparently fallen over near lit candles.
EMS rushed the man to McLaren Oakland Hospital for treatment. He was later transported to the Detroit Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.
An Oakland County Sheriff’s deputy was also hospitalized for smoke inhalation, but has since been treated and released.
The investigation into the fire is ongoing.
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