LYNCHBURG (WSLS 10) - Monday night's house fire in Lynchburg which left one woman dead started due to improper discarding of smoking materials, according to the Lynchburg Fire Department.
The fire happened at about 10:45 p.m. in the 1400 block of Garfield Avenue.
Firefighters had to force open the door to get inside the home.
Fire Marshal Thomas Goode said it took about three minutes for the first truck to arrive on the scene and about 10 minutes total to extinguish the fire.
Once the fire was out, there was a search of the upstairs apartment where they found a body.
"We had a structure fire, which is also known as a room in content fire. What that means is it was a fire in one room even though it created heavy smoke throughout the rest of the apartment," explained Goode. "She had two working smoke alarms inside the structure. They were going off when I was there. So they were working. One actually melted off the wall."
There is an apartment downstairs that received smoke damage and the resident should be able to return in a few days.
The victim's body is currently at the medical examiner's office.
The American Red Cross is assisting those affected by this fire.