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Former Midtown Sacramento Restaurant Catches Fire; Person Found Inside Dies

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — One person has died after they were found inside a former Midtown Sacramento restaurant that caught fire early Tuesday morning, authorities say.

The fire was at the building that once was the Mayflower Chinese restaurant.

Sacramento Fire says their crews responded to the scene just after 1 a.m. to battle a two-alarm fire. A person was soon found inside the building towards the front entrance. That person was rushed to the hospital, but they were later pronounced dead. No name has been released at this point.

It took more than 60 firefighters to put out the massive fire, which investigators now call suspicious.

Firefighters have since doused the flames. The building appears to have suffered heavy damage in the fire.

More from CBS Sacramento:

Investigators are now looking into what caused the fire, however, firefighters think homeless people could be to blame.

"We've had a lot of problems with homeless people sleeping outside the building and creating disturbances and things of that sort," said Keith Wade with the Sacramento Fire Dept.

"I come by here at least 2-3 times a week, sometimes it's just to cut some weeds and I will see 1-2 people on the grounds that I wind up getting them to move and the clean up behind them," said the building's owner.

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