Despite the valiant effort of firefighters and paramedics, an elderly man died at a local hospital Tuesday morning, after flames swept through his westside apartment.   The Los Angeles Fire Department received the first of several 9-1-1 calls at 9:52 AM on February 26, 2019 reporting a two-story residential duplex ablaze at 850 South Bedford Street in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles.    Firefighters arrived promptly to encounter heavy fire at the upstairs rear of the structure, and were immediately able to extended hoselines into the heat-and-smoke charged building thanks to the simultaneous vertical ventilation effort of their rooftop colleagues.    It was during that initial fire attack that LAFD crews boldly made their way through excessive personal storage inside the 1,575 square-foot upstairs unit to find an unconscious and unresponsive 91 year-old man in the kitchen of the still burning apartment. The lifeless man was quickly carried to the care of awaiting LAFD Firefighter/Paramedics, who initiated advanced life support care during rapid transport to an area hospital, where the man was determined dead on arrival.   Fifty-five Los Angeles Firefighters were able to fully extinguish the flames in just 14 minutes. No other injuries were reported. Fire Department Investigators found no evidence of functional smoke alarms in the apartment, which also lacked optional residential fire sprinklers.    A positive identification of the dead man, as well as the cause, time and manner of his death, will be determined by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner.    Direct fire damage was limited to the upstairs premises, and is estimated at $120,000 ($100,000 structure and $20,000 contents). The cause of the fire remains undetermined, but is not considered suspicious.

Dispatched LAFD Units: AR10 AR21 AR27 AR9 BC11 BC18 BC9 CM22 E229 E261 E29 E292 E294 E58 E68 EM11 EM18 PH1 PI1 PI2 RA41 RA58 RA858 RA94 T29 T61 T94