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A 76-year-old man died early Thursday as flames did more than $1 million in damage to his North Berkeley home. 

Marion Knight was pronounced dead at the Summit Alta Bates Medical Center emergency room after firefighters rescued him from the second floor of the family home at 660 Vincente Ave. in Thousand Oaks. 

He suffered from severe burns and from inhaling smoke and fire, according to a preliminary investigation by the Alameda County Coroner’s office. 

Knight’s spouse and adult son were able to escape the fire, though the son was treated at an emergency room for cuts to his hands, said Deputy Fire Chief David Orth. 

“We got the call at 1:14, and the first unit arrived at the scene at 1:19,” said Orth. 

Knight was found on the second floor, and firefighters took him out by ladder through a bedroom window, Orth said. 

Paramedics performed CPR as they rushed Knight to the emergency room where he was subsequently pronounced dead. 

After the rescue, a partial roof collapse and the collapse of much of the second floor level forced crews out of the building. 

“We had to adopt a defensive position, fighting the fire from outside the house, which is always harder,” said Orth. “It was a stubborn fire.” 

By the time the flames were finally controlled about 5 a.m., the fire had gone to three alarms and was using every firefighter and piece of equipment in the city. 

“The Oakland and Albany fire departments covered the rest of the city,” Orth said. 

The home, a stucco-sided flat roofed dwelling built in the 1930s, rises from two stories on the street level to a third story in the rear. 

Damage to the structure is estimated at $1 million, with the loss of contents placed at $150,000. Investigators have pinpointed the area where the fire began, where it may have been triggered by an electric heater, Orth said. 

Apartment fire 

Another fire last Friday ignited when the recent cold snap triggered and set fire to a rug and a bed which had been placed over the heater in a one of the four units of an apartment building at 2425 Virginia St., Orth said. 

“The call came in at 3:01 a.m.,” Orth said, and it soon went to a second alarm. “The tenant had just returned from overseas and he went to bed. He was awakened by the smoke detector and left the apartment, but he didn’t call 911 right away because of some cultural differences and misunderstandings. By the time we arrived, the fire had had some headway.” 

When the fire began, the mercury had dropped to 37 degrees, and brought the inside temperature low enough to trigger the thermostat on a floor heater. 

It took 25 firefighters 45 minutes to bring the blaze under control, and during that time the rest of the city was again covered by the Albany and Oakland departments. 

Most of the residents of the other apartments were students and still out of town when the blaze occurred. The fire did an estimated $200,000 in damage to the building with a $40,000 loss to the contents, Orth said.