3 Killed In Okmulgee Apartment Fire; ATF Investigating

Two men and a woman are dead after a fire destroyed an apartment building in Okmulgee.

A woman who lives in the apartment said seven people were inside when it caught on fire. Four were on the first floor, and they made it out, but the three on the second floor didn’t.

A viewer sent News On 6 a video of flames shooting out of the apartment building.

Lysa O'Connor used to live there and said she knew one of the men who died.

“He was a good kid,” she said. “We went to school together. He was sweet and nice. It blew my mind.”

The two people in the unit on the first floor said they are grateful they made it out because they thought their heater was running too hot.

“Woke up, it was really hot in our apartment,” Riley Fout said. "That's why he turned our heater off, we saw the flames, I'm like ok. As soon as we saw the flames, people started busting our window in. They saw us move the curtain, and they saw we were in there.”

The Okmulgee Fire Department said because the three people were on the second floor, it made trying to get to them much harder.

“They had made entry and had trouble with the staircase,” said Dewayne Hurt, Okmulgee Fire Chief. “They had to come back out go up a ladder.”

Now investigators are figuring out if this fire was arson. They are looking for any accelerants, like gasoline. They are also looking for any electrical malfunctions.

"Investigators have to sift through all that fire debris, get down to the floor level to help them make that determination as to whether this was an intentionally set fire or if it's just an absolute tragic incident," said Ashley Stephens with ATF.

Because this fire happened in Muscogee Creek nation and ATF believes one of the victims is a tribal member, the ATF and Muscogee Creek Lighthorse are investigating.