A 65-year-old man suffered severe burns when his mattress caught fire in a multi-family home on Park Street in Putnam on Tuesday morning.
Another resident helped Wayne Correa, a tenant of the first floor, out of the house and he was transported to the Providence Burn Center to be treated for burns to his torso. No additional was available on Wednesday about his condition.
"She was able to get in and help him, so praise her," Putnam Fire Chief Bob Campbell said of the resident who helped Correa out .
Five other adults from four families live in the building and everyone else got out safely.
The fire department was at the scene just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday and shut down the power on the street so they could fight the fire safely with a ladder truck. Power has since been restored.
Smoke was still rising from the collapsed roof as of 5:36 a.m. on Tuesday and the fire department brought in a machine to knock down some of the walls and get to the fire.
The bitter cold weather also posed a challenge for firefighters, who were outside for several hours, and a lot of the water used to extinguish the fire froze.
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Firefighters did whatever they could to stay warm and drank hot beverages after people brought hot coffee and snacks.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation. There was no criminal activity involved in the fire, according to investigators.
