INDIANAPOLIS — A woman was found dead in a house following a fire Monday morning on the far southeast side of Indianapolis, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Indianapolis and Beech Grove firefighters responded to the fire just before 8 a.m. in the 3600 block of Five Points Road, just outside Interstate 465 and north of Hanna Avenue, after dispatchers received multiple 911 calls.
Firefighters found heavy fire and smoke coming from the house when they arrived, IFD Battalion Chief Rita Reith said in a news release. Crews learned a person was inside the house, but they had difficulty entering the home and conducting a "rapid search" due to "excessive clutter within the home."
The woman was found dead at 8:20 a.m. after a second search of the home. A firefighter suffered a slight heat-related injury and was treated at the scene, Reith said.
One cat in the house died and another cat was rescued and given oxygen.
The woman's identity has not been released.
The cause of the fire has been ruled accidental and caused by an unattended space heater on the back porch, Reith said Monday afternoon. The space heater caught nearby combustibles on fire.
The woman was the second person to die in a fire in the IFD service district in 2021, Reith said. The house did not have working smoke alarms.
