74-year-old man found alive 5 days after DC building fire

https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/24/us/dc-fire-man-alive/index.html

A 74-year-old man has been discovered alive five days after his senior living apartment complex in Washington, DC, caught fire -- but nobody knew he was missing.

Mayor Muriel Bowser told reporters the man was found by crews working to determine whether fire marshals could safely enter the building.
He was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life threatening, Bowser said.
Structural engineer Allyn Kilsheimer said crews were going from unit to unit Monday when they found the man trapped in his apartment.
Some of the doors had swelled because of the fire's heat, Kilsheimer said, which prevented them from being opened. Workers had to use crowbars to pry some doors open.

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A 74-year-old man who had been trapped for five days in his apartment at a fire-damaged senior housing complex was freed Monday, a chance rescue that came days after District officials announced that all building residents had been accounted for following the blaze.

The man, Raymond Holton, emerged without serious injuries and was evaluated at George Washington University Hospital. Engineers assessing the structural integrity of the building heard him yelling and used a crowbar to pry open the door of his second-floor apartment. They found him sitting on a couch.

“I wasn’t scared. I be here by myself anyway,” Holton said in a telephone interview from the hospital. “I thought they forgot about me. I didn’t know about no fire.”

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean blamed the building’s management company, which they said provided the city with an inaccurate report that all residents were safe. That report was a crucial factor in the decision last week by fire officials to suspend further searches of the Arthur Capper Senior Public Housing complex after initial chaotic rescues and evacuations.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/man-pulled-alive-from-rubble-of-dc-senior-complex-destroyed-in-fire/2018/09/24/59af9fa2-c00a-11e8-9005-5104e9616c21_story.html?utm_term=.b0d66a449f00