Fire chief: 1 found dead after Boone apartment fire

BOONE, N.C. — Intense flames shot out of a home near Appalachian State University on Wednesday morning.

When firefighters got inside, they found one person dead.

Eyewitness News spoke with one person Wednesday afternoon who was able to escape the flames.

There are new details Wednesday night about the quick-moving fire in Watauga County that killed a person in an apartment near Boone early this morning.

A neighbor told Channel 9 she narrowly escaped that fire by climbing out a window.

Fire investigators spent hours sifting through the rubble today, hoping to find the cause.

When they got there shortly before 4 a.m., much of the fire was coming from an upstairs apartment.

The fire lit up the early morning sky just west of the Appalachian State University campus.

After firefighters got it under control, they discovered one man dead in that upstairs apartment.

Lisa Hensley lives in the apartment next door.

She woke to the sound of a smoke detector, but by then flames blocked her only exit, forcing her back into the apartment and out a window with her two dogs.

"I was scared. I couldn't get out because the flames were so high and they were coming across the front door, so I slammed the front door back," she said.

From her home on the hillside above the apartments, Mary Horn could see the fire spread.

"I just saw huge flames that were just several feet across," said Horn.

By lunchtime, friends of the man who died here visited the scene but were too shaken to talk.

Hensley, who salvaged just these few items from her home, is praying for his family.

"It was sad. Thoughts going out to his family, especially from the community," said Hensley.

And firefighters said they are waiting on autopsy results before they can positively identify victim.