Fire crews arrived at the complex about 9 a.m., where they found heavy smoke coming from a first floor unit of the north tower, also called tower A, Deputy fire Chief Patrick Ripley said. The male victim was found unconscious in the apartment where the fire started, Ripley said.

"They forced entry, they did their search and they found a victim on the floor there," Ripley said. They got him out into a corridor, at that point other companies assisted, they moved him out to the back, they worked on him there, and he was transported to the hospital."

The man was taken out through the rear door of the building and worked on by paramedics before being taken by ambulance to the hospital, Ripley said.

Several other people had to be helped out of the complex, located at 3610 Mystic Valley Parkway, and some were checked for minor injuries Friday morning, Ripley said. The first floor of the building sustained heavy smoke and water damage.The fire was contained quickly. No fire or smoke was showing just after 9:30 a.m.

Dorothy Donahue was in the bedroom of her first floor unit when the fire started. She didn't know anything was out of the ordinary until water began to seep into her unit, she said.

“I was in the bedroom, and all of a sudden the water started to come in and rise,”  Donahue said.

Donahue, who waited for her daughter in Andover to pick her up, was one of many residents scattered around the outside of the complex after the fire. It's the second time in the tower has been hit with fire in 7 months. A fire that started on a stove in a 9th floor unit caused the entire building to be evacuated late at night on Nov. 15. No one was hurt in that fire.

The situation was more challenging Friday because the first floor of the building has more difficult access than higher floors, Ripley said.

The cause had not been determined yet Friday morning, Ripley said.

"We haven't even gone there yet," Ripley said.

article by Jarrett Bencks of The Medford Patch.