Fatal fire hits Kensington Club Apartments in Lancaster Township [update] (2024)

UPDATE:Coroner identifies Lancaster Township man killed during Kensington Club Apartments fire

A fire broke out at an apartment complex in Lancaster Township on Saturday afternoon, with numerous fire companies fighting the blaze.

The Lancaster County Coroner’s Office, when asked whether they had sent someone to the scene, declined comment. A fire chief told CBS21that a disabled man who lived alone in apartment 8 was killed after becoming trapped in the fire. A dog and a cat also perished as a result.

Over 40 crews responded to the fire at 675 Wyncroft Lane's Apartment 8 in Kensington Club Apartments, which was initially called in at around 4:39 p.m., per Lancaster County-Wide Communications.

The building contains 8 apartment units, 5 of which were damaged by the fire, which left the building uninhabitable. The complex is less than a mile away from Hamilton Elementary School.

The Lancaster Township Fire Department stated in a Facebook post that the majority of the flames were knocked down by 5 p.m. but continued to smolder for another hour. Units remained on the scene until 9 p.m.

The Red Cross was on the scene, assisting more than 22 displaced residents.

Late Saturday night, the building was illuminated with a large portable light, and was roped off as a fire scene. The doors of the apartments were covered with large sheets of plywood. People were examining the building and debris in the yard in front with flashlights.

Saturday’s fire was not the first for Kensington Club. The most recent ones, bothin 2021, displaced six people and two animals between the two, according to LNP | LancasterOnline archives.

The first started as a brush fire likely caused by a discarded cigarette, officials said, and spread to the roof after a hot ember landed there. The second was an arsonthat spread to five other apartments.

Kensington Club also dealt with a kitchen fire in 2020, another in 2019 from undetermined causes, two in 2018 from a heater fire and a roof fire, and two more in 2017 because of a Jeep Wrangler electrical malfunction and a stove fire.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.