Man injured in house fire; rat rescued by fire department

A man was taken to the hospital after a fire that heavily damaged a home in downtown Lexington Tuesday night.

Other occupants of the house, including a pet rat, were not injured.

Lexington Fire Department Battalion Chief Brad Whittaker said firefighters who were called to the home at 333 Ross Avenue at 9:26 p.m. arrived to find “heavy fire” coming from the rear apartment.

Initially, Whittaker said, there was concern that someone might have still been in the house.

“Our guys made a very aggressive search,” Whittaker said, before it was determined that everyone had made it out safely on their own.

Whittaker said the house is divided into three apartments, all of which had heat and smoke damage and will be uninhabitable for the time being.

The house next door sustained some heat damage because the homes are so close together, he said.

Whittaker said investigators were working Tuesday night to determine the origin and cause of the fire.

A firefighter brought the rat out of the home in its cage and delivered it to a woman after the fire had been extinguished.