A 37-year-old man was found dead in an apartment fire early Wednesday, according to Lincoln Fire and Rescue.Â
The victim hasn’t yet been identified.Â
Capt. Nancy Crist said fire crews were called at 2:38 a.m. to the apartments at 5500 Salt Valley View St. and found light smoke in the hallway, coming from a first-floor apartment with charring under the door frame.Â
Smoke detectors were sounding when firefighters went into the apartment to find heavy smoke throughout. Crist said a pot of grease had burned on the stove. The fire was contained to the kitchen and had all but burned itself out by the time they got there.
In a search for victims, they found the man, unconscious and not breathing, between the kitchen and living room.
Firefighters took him out and tried to revive him, but he was declared dead.
Police said the cause of the man's death hasn't been determined.
He was the only person in the apartment.
Crist said it was hard to say how long it had been burning before the hallway started filling with smoke, causing a neighbor to call 911.
No other residents of the building were displaced.Â
Crist said Lincoln Fire & Rescue turned the scene over to the Lincoln Police Department and a fire inspector.Â
Lincoln's last fatal fire happened on Dec. 5, 2018, when an 84-year-old man died in a fire sparked by an overturned candle.
PHOTOS: FIREFIGHTERS IN ACTION IN THE PAST
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A firefighter backs off from the heat of the flames Sunday coming from the roof of Romantix, 921 O St. Fire crews responded to the adult novelty store blaze at about 9 a.m. and needed most of the afternoon to extinguish the flames. The building is described as a total loss, but no one was injured.
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A massive plume of fire erupts in front of Lincoln firefighters Nick Thill (left) and Mark Sullivan moments after Sullivan ventilated the roof with the blade of his chainsaw at a working fire at 1717 A Street in Lincoln on Wednesday evening, April 6, 2011.
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With a fire hose at the ready, Lincoln firefighters look over the underside of a pickup truck which rolled over at the intersection of 16th and L Streets Monday afternoon, April 11, 2011. The scanner call mentioned there was leaking gasoline. One person was taken away on a stretcher to an ambulance.
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Marie Yost (left) and Nancy Harter (right) watch from the median on O Street as Lincoln firefighters pour water on the smouldering remains of the Lincoln Public Schools adminstration building on Tuesday morning, May 31, 2011. Harter, who worked in the building for 11 years, said a supervisor contacted staff at 6 a.m. to let them know of the fire.
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Heavy smoke envelopes the house fire at 236 S. 27th Street as Lincoln firefighters apply water to the attic fire on Tuesday afternoon, August 16, 2011.
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Lincoln Firefighter Nancy Engelbrecht (right) attempts to comfort Shari Elder as Elder watches smoke pour from the apartment building where she lives on Wednesday, March 13, 2013, at 27th and Randolph streets.
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Protected against the 1600 degree temperatures emanating from the fire pit, Dorchester Vol. Fire Dept. firefighter Brant Pracheil tosses the Stars and Stripes into the flames on Tuesday, June 14, 2016, during a flag retirement ceremony at the Dorchester American Legion Post 264. A total of 1957 unserviceable flags from the communities of Dorchester, York, Fairmont, Lincoln, Wilber, Fairbury and Crete were retired from life during the ceremony.
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The Stars and Strips opens to the swirling wind from the ladder of Lincoln Fire & Rescue Truck 1 on Friday, March 31, 2017, during the bridge dedication ceremony for Staff Sgt. Patrick Hamburger at the Spirit of '76 Armory.
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Surrounded by black smoke, a Lincoln Fire Department firefighter uses a pike pole to open the porch ceiling at the scene of a house fire on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019, at 1800 Euclid Avenue.
Photos: Firefighters in Action
Matt Barnard, with Beatrice Rural Fire District, uses a torch to spread flames during a prescribed burn of 45 acres of the prairie at Homestead National Monument of America on Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2010.
Photos: Firefighters in Action
Lincoln Fire and Rescue teams help Alex Lekai and his mother, not pictured, evacuate from her south bottoms home on Thursday, May 7, 2015.
Photos: Firefighters in Action
Cuddling her grandson's dog Milo, homeowner Deborah Ganz is consoled by a neighbor as she watches her garage burn on Wednesday, April 6, 2016, in west Lincoln.
Photos: Firefighters in Action
A Lincoln firefighter directs his hose on the roof of La Mexicana Market & Restaurant, 17th and P Streets, on Monday, April 13, 2015.
