An April 12 apartment fire on Florence Road was expected to remain under investigation this week as officials attempt to pinpoint the cause. The blaze at Branford Hills Apartments gutted one apartment, sent one civilian to a hospital burn unit, and injured two firefighters.

Both firefighters were treated and expected to be back on the job this week. Names of all three injured parties couldn't be released due to legal restrictions, said Branford Assistant Fire Chief Shaun Heffernan.

Despite the raging inferno that consumed much of the interior of the structure, Heffernan said, "There's a lot of evidence left. I'm pretty confident we're going to pinpoint the start as well as the cause, which I'm fairly confident is going to be accidental."

Heffernan is leading the investigation, which includes interviewing occupants of the apartment. Only one of the occupants, described as a 32 year-old male, was at home when the fire was discovered. He was injured while attempting to locate a family member he believed to be in another room. He was transported to Yale-New Haven Hospital by Branford's emergency services ambulance and later sent on to Bridgeport Hospital's burn unit for treatment.

"He was sleeping on the couch when smoke woke him up. He went to his brother's room and, when he opened the door, fire hit him in the face. He fled the apartment, got outside and broke the window to check for his brother. Air was then introduced through the broken window and that allowed the fire to grow rapidly," said Heffernan.

A landscaping crew working nearby grabbed extinguishers but couldn't quench the raging fire. The alarm was called in at 9:03 a.m. and the department's first unit was on scene at

9:06 a.m. Four engines, a rescue truck, and a ladder truck responded.

The two Branford firefighters injured at the scene suffered burns to the face, ears, and neck after they entered the building to check for occupants. The two were wearing proper protective equipment, said Heffernan.

"They were injured while they were inside fighting the fire and searching for reported occupants …Our guys went in to search and a partial sheet rock collapse of the ceiling landed on their heads. It just dropped heat all the way down and burned them."

Sheet rock is designed to absorb fire and heat through its gypsum core. Because heat rises, the sheet rock in the ceiling was "superheated" by the blaze, said Heffernan.

Heffernan said the bedroom where the fire was likely to have initiated had been unoccupied for between two to three hours before the blaze was reported. The fire spread into the rest of the apartment after the searching occupant opened the bedroom door and left it open as he fled the building. But another door helped contain the fire, said Heffernan.

"About five years ago, the complex did a major fire code upgrade and the building construction held this raging inferno in this apartment. The doors to each apartment are rated fire doors that are self-closing, so when he left the apartment, that door slammed shut and kept the fire in the apartment."

A firewall between apartments kept the fire from spreading into neighboring units, which had smoke damage. The apartment was located in a six-unit building in the Florence Road complex.

Inside the burned apartment, "All of the sheetrock is down, but none of the two-by-fours are burnt. Sheetrock is designed to hold back fire and protect. All of the objects in the apartment burned, but the sheetrock did its job," said Heffernan.