Firefighters from Wadsworth and several neighboring departments battled a three-alarm house fire early Thursday morning in the 2500 block of Blake Road in Wadsworth Township.
The call came in just before 6 a.m. When crews arrived, the home was fully involved in flames, according to Wadsworth Fire Chief Bob Lindner.
Officials say there were early reports that 10-15 people might have been inside, and as many as 20 people may have lived in the house. When firefighters searched the home, they found a man in his 50s suffering from smoke inhalation. He told crews he escaped by jumping out of a first-floor window. He was taken to a burn unit at an Akron hospital.
Fighting the fire was challenging because the home sits in a rural area without fire hydrants. Crews had to run hoses about a quarter mile to Wadsworth Road to get water, and strong winds helped fuel the flames.
The home was destroyed in the fire.
Investigators with the Medina County Fire Investigation Unit are now working to determine what caused the blaze. Officials believe everyone else made it out safely.
