Video: 1 dead in Capitol Hill apartment building fire

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SEATTLE - Police say the elderly man killed in an apartment building fire in Seattle was the last tenant of the older building scheduled for demolition.

The fire started about 6:30 a.m. in a unit on the first floor of the building, located at 1605 Bellevue Avenue. The fire quickly spread up the corner of the building as dozens of firefighters battled the blaze from the ground.

Friends and former tenants of the longtime manager of the Marion Apartments believe he is the victim of the fire. They say the man was in his late 80s and had spent decades managing the apartment building with his late wife.

All the tenants moved out in August because the building is slated for demolition, but the former manager had been reluctant to leave, and he recently had been told his time there was about to end.

"I was told, by him, that he was going to be evicted today at 6 p.m.," said former tenant Clinton Jessee.

Jessee said the man had a lifetime of belongings, which made a move seem insurmountable.

"It was like floor-to-ceiling, magazines, newspapers, from 30 years. I mean 7-11 cups that went floor to ceiling. The guy had to walk sideways through it," he said.

Firefighter say the sheer volume of belongings inside his apartment made it a little more difficult for them to enter the unit when they tried to find the man, and it's also slowing the pace of their investigation.

Friends describe the man as spry and stubborn and add his health had begun to fail.

"The last time I saw him, his left leg was very swollen. I know he'd seen a doctor about his heart, and I talked with him on the phone, he had a very bad cold and I encouraged him to go to the doctor," said Dennis Saxman.

He was already dead when firefighters entered his apartment.

Those who knew him say he will be missed.

"I'm glad I knew him, and I'm sad it had to end like this," said Jessee.

Fire investigators determined that this was a set fire. An open flame was used to ignite nearby combustible materials in a first-floor apartment.