Woman, pets die in apartment fire in Lebanon

UPDATE: The Lebanon Police Department has identified the person who died in a Monday night apartment fire as 74-year-old Susan Hayes. The Boone County Coroner’s Office says Hayes died of a medical emergency prior to the fire, which fire investigators believe was caused by unattended smoking materials.

LEBANON, Ind. (WISH) — A person and several pets died in a Monday night fire in an apartment in Lebanon, the fire department says.

The person who died in the fire was not immediately identified. Several cats and dogs also died in the fire, says a news release from Lebanon Fire Department.

Police and fire personnel were called to a reported cardiac arrest just after 7:15 p.m. Monday in the 1800 block of Sprucewood Drive. That’s at the Canterbury House Apartments north of I-65 between the State Road 39 and Boone County Road 100 East interchanges.

Crews arrived to find smoke coming from the apartment. Once inside, crews found the fire was out, but the person inside as well as the pets did not survive.

The cause and origin of the fire had not been determined by late Monday night, although investigators remained at the apartment.