A woman died in a South Side apartment fire overnight, and Pittsburgh fire Chief Darryl Jones didn’t hesitate to blame the death on a lack of sprinklers.

The victim was identified as Teresa Walker, 65.

Crews responded to calls about 2 a.m. and found smoke pouring from a basement apartment. Walker was found unresponsive inside.

“If this apartment was sprinklered, I doubt very seriously this would have been a fatality,” Jones said from the scene outside Carson Towers at 2117 E. Carson St.

Jones said the building has a partial sprinkler system with alarms in the common areas but not in individual apartments.

The fire was contained to one unit. Some residents complained about smoke in their apartments, Jones said. The building was briefly evacuated. Residents have since been allowed back into the building, and East Carson Street is open to traffic.

Sprinklers are required under current code for newly built structures.

Jones continues to lobby city council for sprinklers to be mandatory in all high-rise buildings since the deadly May 2017 blaze at Midtown Towers on Liberty Avenue, Downtown. One woman was killed in that seven-alarm fire. The building had no sprinkler system because of its age.

Tawnya Panizzi is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tawnya at 412-782-2121, ext. 2, tpanizzi@tribweb.com or via Twitter @tawnyatrib.

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