Jackie Robinson's Brother-in-Law Dies in South LA Blaze

Pack rat conditions were discovered inside the single-story house after the fire was extinguished

The brother-in-law of baseball great Jackie Robinson was found dead inside a Los Angeles home with pack rat conditions where firefighters were battling a blaze, officials said Tuesday.

Ray Isum, 90, was pulled from the burning Exposition Park home and later determined to be dead, according to the fire department. 

Family friend Jerome Thompson said Isum had lived in the house his entire life.

Thompson said Isum was a "beautiful person" who always let neighbors know his relation to Robinson.

The single-story home in the 1500 block of West 36th Place was in pack rat-like conditions and did not have any working smoke alarms, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Now when you look at the risk factors in today’s fire, you have a 90-year-old male whose living in a single family residence and they say he doesn't have mobility issues, but at 90 years old it’s not very easy for people just to run out of a house when it’s on fire," said fire department spokesman Capt. Jaime Moore.

"Now, add to that the fact that there is an excessive amount of storage - which compromised the firefighters ability to get in and anybody’s ability to get out - and on top of that you put the fact that there were no smoke alarms evident, you have a lot of risk factors in this fire," Moore said.

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One firefighter was injured while battling the fire and suffered burns to his leg. His injuries are not life threatening.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. The man's death is the 16th at a residential fire since the beginning of the year.

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