LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A person was found dead after a house fire in Louisville's Crescent Hill neighborhood Wednesday.
At about 6:30 a.m., Louisville Fire Department crews were dispatched to a fire in the 100 block of Franck Avenue.
The blaze is still under investigation, but firefighters believe it started in the back of one house and quickly spread to the home next door.
"Upon pushing through and gaining control of the fire, and conducting all their searches, they did end up finding an occupant in the rear of the main fire structure," Captain Donovan Sims said.
Friends at the scene told WHAS11 the victim is 64-year-old Mark Shallcross, who was a spokesperson for the Derby Festival.
Shallcross died at the scene where friends stood with grief Wednesday morning. They were too heartbroken to speak on camera.
"I saw him Monday night, very rarely that I see him; then this happens the next day basically," one friend said.
Sims said it took 25 firefighters approximately 30 minutes to gain control of the fire. Initially, they struggled to find the main house because of heavy smoke in the area of Frankfort Avenue and North Hire Avenue.
"When you have that cold weather, that smoke kind of sits down low, versus moving straight up and that just made it like hard at first to locate. Outside of that, everything else was fine," Sims said.
He said no one else was injured or inside the house next door at the time of the fire.
The owner of the neighboring home later arrived with loved ones by his side. They comforted him before assessing the damage, which was mostly in the back of the two houses.
LFD Arson is investigating the fire. The coroner will determine the cause of death of Shallcross.
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