Man found alive five days after fire

WASHINGTON — Engineers inspecting the wreckage of a public housing complex gutted by fire five days before found a 74-year-old tenant inside, alive and well, on Monday.

The discovery of a survivor adds an improbable postscript to the fire that engulfed the Arthur Capper Senior Public Housing complex in southeast Washington on Wednesday. The fire started near the top of the building about 3 p.m., and a large section of the roof collapsed about three hours later.

Firefighters, assisted by a group of Marines from a nearby barracks, combed the burning building to evacuate all tenants — some of whom were too infirm to walk and had to be carried out. A handful of tenants were hospitalized with minor injuries, but no serious casualties were reported.

On Monday, engineers were examining the damaged building to assess its structural integrity when they heard the man shouting. They pried open his jammed apartment door and found him calmly sitting in a chair, said Doug Buchanan, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C., Fire Department.

The man appeared to be uninjured and was hospitalized for observation.

Buchanan said it’s unclear how the tenant was missed when firefighters and Marines searched the burning building.

“We were under the impression that we had either laid eyes on every apartment or banged on the doors of every apartment,” he said. “Clearly there will be an after-action meeting to assess things.”