The neighbors of the Ames man who died in a fire that engulfed a two story house on Illinois Avenue about 11 p.m. Sunday night said they are willing to do whatever it take to continue to help their neighbors. 

Ames Police said one of the residents at 1322 Illinois Ave. in west Ames died in the fire, while two other men in the house, Carl Boese, 27, and Lin Yang, 26, are still receiving medical attention at Mary Greeley Medical Center. 

Neighbors Will Hatcher and Chrystel Crenshaw said they will continue to help the two residents who managed to escape the burning home. 

“I went to the hospital and saw him today, and I will go every day until he’s discharged,” Crenshaw said about one of the residents. “I saw the other roommate also at the hospital yesterday and said my condolences. They were more than grateful. I think they are also in shock. They lost their friend.”

The State Fire Marshal will continue to investigate the cause of the fire, but neighbors said one of the men living in the house told them the fire started from a fire pit in the backyard.

Hatcher and Crenshaw said they were in their home when they heard their neighbor pounding on the door sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday. They knew two of the neighbors had escaped the home but they were unsure if their roommate was still in the house. 

Crenshaw said they could already see from her home directly across the street that the back side of their neighbor’s home was completely engulfed. Both Hatcher and Crenshaw ran across the street to help the three or four men who lived in the house. 

While on the lawn, she and Hatcher could hear one of the men yelling, but the smoke was so thick they could not see him. 

“He jumped out the second floor window just to get out of the house,” Crenshaw said. “[Hatcher] used a bat to break a window because we were trying to yell. We weren’t sure if there was another person in there.”

Crenshaw said she believed three young men had recently moved into the home, but did not know them well. 

“The one guy was just laying there and we were trying to get him away from the building because he was saying, ‘my back hurts,’” Hatcher said. “‘Well, I don’t want this house blow up on all of us.'” 

Crenshaw said the man was eventually able to crawl away while she and Hatcher tried to determine who else was in the flame-engulfed home. Crenshaw said the man told him he was not sure if his third roommate was still in the home or had not been in the house at the start of the fire. 

“We were still running around the house because he didn’t know if his friend was in there or not,” Crenshaw said. “We still kind of feel helpless.”

Hatcher said their neighbor told them he believes the fire was caused by a fire pit at the back of the house, but the cause is still under investigation. 

“It was pretty windy, so I’m assuming it blew some coals up to the house,” Hatcher said. 

Crenshaw said the neighborhood will do whatever it can to help the men who lived there.

“In this neighborhood, we don’t all know each other’s names but we know each other’s faces. Obviously the whole neighborhood needs time to think about what’s happened, and after that time we will be able to group together and come up with something to help,” Crenshaw said. 

Though Ames Fire Chief Shawn Bayouth was not able to determine the cause of the fire, he said the State Fire Marshal will be investigating. 

Bayouth said the fire was serious enough to have three fire trucks on the scene. Though crews were able to enter the home around 12:15 a.m., the home was charred up to the roof.

“The fire was heavily involved when [fire crews] got here,” Bayouth said. “They put the fire out on the structure from the outside because we couldn’t make interior attack right away, which is a little unusual to have a fire that heavily involved right off the bat.”

As for the two residents, Crenshaw said the neighborhood will offer whatever support it can.

“It’s kind of up to them what they need out of us. I don’t want to burden them by being overbearing, but we would like to be the shoulder for them to lean on,” Crenshaw said. “If they are going to do something with the house, we are more than willing to step in and do whatever.”