![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_pcfr_lm_fatal_fire_lakeland_ralph_road_3_3_26_44-1024x684.webp?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nPCFR crews were dispatched at 9:48 a.m. and arrived on scene at 9:50 a.m. to a structure fire that spread to multiple rooms. A person was found outside the home and transported to a local hospital. Firefighters started a primary search after they were notified someone was still inside. Other PCFR crews worked simultaneously to put out the flames.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crews discovered a deceased victim while searching the home. The fire was brought under control at 10:29 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_pcfr_lm_fatal_fire_lakeland_ralph_road_3_3_26_37-1024x684.webp?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\u201cThese scenes are difficult for everyone involved. Our crews moved quickly to put out the fire and locate any individuals still inside the home,\u201d said Fire Chief Shawn Smith. \u201cWe offer our condolences to the victim\u2019s family and hope for a quick recovery for the individual transported from the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A PCFR firefighter sustained minor injuries while battling the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Florida State Fire Marshal\u2019s Office and Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office are investigating.<\/p>\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/img_pcfr_lm_fatal_fire_lakeland_ralph_road_3_3_26_01-1024x684.webp?resize=1024%2C684&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polk County Fire Rescue (PCFR) crews responded to a fatal fire off Ralph Road in Lakeland on Tuesday Morning. PCFR crews were dispatched at 9:48 a.m. and arrived on scene… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDNcL2ltZ19wY2ZyX2xtX2ZhdGFsX2ZpcmVfbGFrZWxhbmRfcmFscGhfcm9hZF8zXzNfMjZfNDQtc2NhbGVkLndlYnA_Zml0PTEwMjQlMkM2ODQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJQb2xrIENvdW50eSBGaXJlIFJlc2N1ZSBSZXNwb25kcyB0byBGYXRhbCBGaXJlIGluIExha2VsYW5kIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.gm9-rg0sXIoTHL1-BzuIB5OiutVsfnAH3xSMmG9haT8MQ"},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13901],"class_list":["post-63288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-fire-rescue-responds-to-fatal-fire-in-lakeland"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63288"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63288\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63292,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63288\/revisions\/63292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}