Body Found Inside Aptos Home After Weekend Fire

Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies are working to confirm the identity of a person whose badly burned body was found inside an Aptos home that caught fire near state Highway 1 early Saturday morning, a deputy said Monday.

At about 12:20 a.m. Saturday, the Aptos-La Selva Fire Protection District responded to a call about a fire at a three-story home in the 9700 block of Monroe Avenue, near the Rio Del Mar Boulevard exit on Highway 1. The flames were coming from the third floor of the home, which stands against a hillside, and firefighters were not able to climb to the top to reach the room, fire Division Chief Mike Conrad said.

Firefighters were able to access the first two floors, however, and two people living in the home escaped to the driveway below, Conrad said.

After dousing the two-alarm blaze, firefighters discovered the severely burned body on the home's top floor, Conrad said. No one else was injured, he said.

The fire district is investigating the cause of the fire, which started on the third floor, but crews cannot yet go into the home because it is too unstable, Conrad said.

"There is nothing to indicate there was anything suspicious, but we can't be sure until we can get inside the building," he said.

Some neighbors told firefighters that the victim might have been the owner of the home, he said.

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