By Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 9, 2008

A man who might have been smoking in bed died early yesterday when the mattress in his Silver Spring apartment caught fire, Montgomery County fire officials said.

Vien Cao, 31, was found unconscious and not breathing in a second-floor apartment in the 8000 block of Georgia Avenue, fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said. The apartment was one of several above Lotus Cafe, a Vietnamese restaurant where Cao had recently started working.

Piringer said another resident smelled smoke shortly before 2 a.m. and realized there was a fire in Cao's bedroom. They dragged a ladder to the window and grabbed fire extinguishers to use against the blaze.

Fire and rescue crews found Cao on the mattress, apparently suffering from burns and smoke inhalation. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Fire officials described the damage in the apartment as "minimal," including about $5,000 worth of damage to the structure and $1,000 to the contents. Although several smoke alarms were in the area, they were inoperable, officials said.

No official ruling has been made on the cause of the fire, but Piringer said it appears that Cao was smoking in or near his bed and that the smoking materials ignited the mattress.

This is the county's fifth residential fire fatality of the year, Piringer said.

Staff writer Dan Morse contributed to this report.