Bedford Apartment Fire Leaves 1 Person Dead

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BEDFORD (CBSDFW.COM) - An apartment fire early Tuesday morning left one person dead, according to fire officials. It happened just before 5:00 a.m. at the Toscana Villas of Bedford, located along Tennis Drive, just south of the Airport Freeway.

A man said that he smelled smoke and called 911 for help. Firefighters arrived at the scene and started banging on doors to try and find the possible fire. They finally located heavy smoke coming from inside of a first-floor apartment unit. The smoke was so intense that it was setting off fire alarms in other units.

"It woke me up and I smelled something very strong," recalled neighbor James Goss. "I thought something maybe caught fire. I knew something wasn't right, because you could see the haze inside my apartment and all that."

A preliminary investigation found that the fire had been smoldering for quite some time.

That building was evacuated as fire crews battled the flames. The unit where the blaze began was badly burned out, and it was confirmed that one person inside of the apartment died. That individual has not yet been identified, but a neighbor said that it was an elderly woman who mostly kept to herself.

There were no reports of any other injuries, and no word yet on what might have caused the flames.