A St. Paul man died in an apartment fire Tuesday on his 57th birthday, according to fire officials.
William Clepper, who was identified by authorities Wednesday night, died from burn injuries after his clothes caught fire from the stove at his apartment in the 1600 block of N. Hamline Avenue.
Fire crews responded at 2:51 p.m. to extinguish the kitchen fire. Authorities said other units in the building remained habitable.
Clepper's death was the second fire fatality in the city this week. Sunday morning, a 38-year-old man who went by the single name of Guntoro died in a fire at a home in the 700 block of Lexington Parkway N. Guntoro, who was from Indonesia, wasn't able to escape the basement bedroom where he apparently started a fire while smoking a cigarette in bed.
The two deaths doubled the number of fire fatalities in St. Paul this year to four.
Nicole Norfleet
