Man who is hearing impaired dies in southwest Houston apartment fire after neighbors try to save him

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A man who is hearing impaired died in an apartment fire after neighbors tried to rescue him.

It happened off South Post Oak and Willowbend in southwest Houston overnight.

Neighbors heard popping sounds and ran outside to see flames shooting through the kitchen window.

In a frantic effort to save their neighbor, they grabbed fire extinguishers and broke through the window.

"Once we finally got in, we got fire extinguishers and stuff like that, and started spraying it down. But it was still trying to catch up so we started kicking in the windows trying to get some of the smoke out of there and get to the people in there," Deandre Gibbs said.

Unfortunately, the smoke and flames were too much. The people trying to save the victim had to get out.

Firefighters were able to put the fire and found the victim in a closet.

Firefighters said it appears the victim died from smoke inhalation.

Neighbors say the man was hearing impaired and had lived in the apartment complex for a couple of years.