Apartment Fire Kills Two

OTSEGO (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - Firefighters have recovered the bodies of two people after putting out an early morning apartment fire.

It happened just before 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving, at the Aspen Park Apartments in Otsego.

Allegan County Sheriff's Deputies had to force their way into the burning apartment. Once the flames were knocked down, firefighters discovered the two victims inside.

"We found one of the victims lying on the floor in the bedroom, the other victim was in a closet that made an entrance into the bedroom," said Vince Pagano, the Otsego Fire Chief.

Those two victims were later identified as 30-year-old Kelly Washburn and 30-year-old Nathan Elledge.

People in the neighboring apartments say they knew right away that something terrible had happened. Newschannel 3 spoke with Marcos Vega, a teenager who lives next door to where the fire occurred.

"They told us the next door neighbor's apartment was on fire, so they told us to hurry up and evacuate the place," he said.

Investigators say there were no smoke detectors in the apartment.

"There was a bracket on the wall where the smoke detector should have been," said Chief Panago.

The fire actually started in the bedroom where the victims were found, and smoldered long enough to burn through the floor. That caused a leak in the water pipes, which was discovered by the neighbors downstairs.

People living below the burned-out apartment have been displaced due to the ceiling damage, and the leaking water. Right now, it appears human error may have been the cause.

Neighbors say Washburn and Elledge had been living at Aspen Park for about two years.