Resident remains unaccounted for after devastating house fire in Wilmington

A resident was unaccounted for Saturday morning after a house fire in Wilmington, Delaware, caused part of the home to collapse, according to the Wilmington Fire Department.

According to officials, around 4:15 a.m. on May 2, Wilmington firefighters on the B Platoon responded to the 2000 block of North Harrison Street in the city’s Triangle neighborhood after receiving reports of a blaze.

When firefighters arrived, they found heavy fire on all three floors of a three-story, semi-detached dwelling, and they immediately entered to search for occupants and suppress the fire.

However, due to the extreme fire conditions, Battalion Chief Michael Khairzada, the incident commander, ordered all firefighters to exit the structure, officials said.

According to the fire department, approximately 25 minutes into the incident, the front section of the structure suffered a total collapse.

After battling the fire for over an hour, firefighters were able to bring it under control. Officials said one firefighter suffered a minor hand injury.

As of 9:30 a.m., one resident remained unaccounted for, according to officials.

Additional resources were requested from the New Castle County Collapse team to help with shoring up the remaining structure to complete the searches.

Officials said the adjoining dwelling suffered moderate fire and smoke damage, and the neighboring dwelling suffered minor fire damage.

The Wilmington Fire Marshal’s Office is investigation the cause of the fire.