STEUBENVILLE — A fire Sunday afternoon at Fort Steuben Apartments claimed the life of an unidentified 65-year-old resident, Fire Chief Carlo Capaldi said.

Capaldi said crews responded to the building, located at 180 North Fourth Street, around 4 p.m.

He said an individual met fire crews at the door and told them someone was believed to be trapped in the apartment.

“When the crews got there, they went to the seventh floor and extinguished the fire in the apartment,” Capaldi said. “They kept the fire (contained) in the apartment, but the seventh and eighth floors had a lot of smoke so all the residents (on those two floors) had to be evacuated.”

Once crews had the fire out, Capaldi said they were able to locate the victim. His identity is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

“He was overcome by smoke from the fire,” Capaldi said, adding the coroner was summoned and the state fire marshal was called in to investigate the cause of the fatal fire.

“The investigation is under the control of the state fire marshal now. When I have anything else to release I will release it, but right now that’s all (the information) we’ve got.”

He said crews were at the scene until about 8 or 8:30 p.m.

“We had to wait there for the fire investigator from the state,” he said. “Our crews were there, and Weirton and Wintersville provided mutual aid.”

Capaldi said Fort Steuben Apartments has eight occupied floors plus a ninth floor, where the penthouse once was, that’s now used for storage. He said there wasn’t much risk of spreading.