Helicopter crashes into Florida home, starting fire

[March 23, 2015]  (Reuters) - One person was killed when a helicopter crashed into a home in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday, sparking a fire that sent smoke billowing over the area, emergency officials said.

Orlando fire officials said the person who died was in the helicopter, which went down around 2:15 p.m, but it has not been determined whether the victim was the pilot or a passenger.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were combing through the crash site to there were no other victims and to try determine what caused the accident, said Orlando Assistant Fire Chief Hezedean Smith.

The helicopter struck a second-floor garage apartment adjoining a private home before breaking apart and igniting a fire that was extinguished within minutes, Smith said.

Nobody was in the apartment when the chopper hit, he said. One man was in the house and was not hurt.

The impact left "significant damage" to the garage apartment and wreckage of the helicopter spread down a residential street in Orlando's College Park neighborhood, not far from downtown, he said.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that neighbors said the sound of the crash carried for blocks.

"It blew up, and part of the rotor landed in a neighbor's backyard and knocked down a fence, three houses away," Ben Brown told the newspaper.

Aerial photos showed large plumes of smoke streaming from the crash site.

Fire officials said it was not yet known where the helicopter was headed or from where it had taken off.

(Reporting by Victoria Cavaliere; Editing by Frank McGurty, Jonathan Oatis and Leslie Adler)

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