Man, 50, dies in apartment fire in northern Israel

A 50-year-old man died Thursday in a fire that broke out in an apartment in the northern city of Kiryat Yam, near Haifa.

Authorities said they were investigating what caused the blaze in the four-story building on Moshe Shapira Street.

Firefighters found the man unconscious after arriving to put out the fire, which was raging in a one-room first-floor apartment.

Paramedics were called in but were unable to save his life and pronounced him dead.

After firefighter extinguished the blaze, an investigator from the Israel Fire and Rescue Services arrived to try and determined the cause of the fire.

Last week, a woman died in a fire in her apartment near the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv.

Firefighters said at the time that they were alerted to a blaze in the single-story structure on Yom Tov Street at around 6 a.m. and that due to the narrow confines of the area they had difficulty getting to the building.

Paramedics tried multiple times to resuscitate the woman, in her 60s, after she was eventually pulled out of the home. She was unconscious and suffering from burn injuries and smoke inhalation, and they were eventually forced to declare her dead.

Police opened an investigation and detained a man, 58 — reportedly a brother of the deceased — for questioning about the cause of the fire.

Stuart Winer contributed to this report.