It was both a fast moving and stubborn fire, flames in walls, behind vinyl siding.
But worst of all it was a fatal fire in Mt. Vernon.
It started around 8:30 Wednesday night in a multifamily home on south First Avenue.
A next door neighbor first spotted the flames.
"It was all flames, the trees were on fire, everything was going up in flames," said Joanne Oates.
Three people made it out of the house, but 51-year old Frank Goldwire did not.
"It looked like a little fire but by the time I turned around and picked up my cell phone, it was up in flames," said one neighbor.
He was found on the first floor, trying to escape the smoke and flames. His sister is hospitalized as is a tenant who lived in a second floor apartment.
Investigators spent hours at the house and say their preliminary findings indicate the cause was electrical; the fire likely sparked by an overloaded power strip--that had been plugged into an extension cord.
