Officials have identified the two people killed in an apartment fire in Elliot Park earlier this month.

Kerry Sims, 66 and Debbie Leshelle Allen, 59 were found dead on Aug. 15 in the four-story building at 1501 11th Ave. S more than a day after a large fire broke out, according to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office. Their deaths are the second and third fire fatalities this year in Minneapolis.

Fire crews arrived at the building, known as Stadium Place, around 9:45 p.m. on Aug. 13 to find heavy smoke coming from the third floor and heavy fire throughout the entire rear stairwell.

Twenty-seven residents were evacuated or rescued from the 22-unit building. Four people were hospitalized with burns or smoke inhalation. The two fatalities weren’t immediately known.

Minneapolis Assistant Fire Chief Melanie Rucker told Downtown Voices that the building was searched on Aug. 14 after the fire was contained, but it wasn’t until Stadium Place’s property manager alerted the department of a missing resident on Aug. 15 that fire crews found the two bodies in the rubble of the collapsed roof.

According to reports, Sims was the missing resident and Allen was his girlfriend, both of whom were found in his fourth-floor apartment. Allen also was a full-time cook at a senior living community in New Richmond, Wisconsin, per KSTP.

"Mr. Kerry was a good dude, a jokester. Real cool, laid-back type of old man," property manager David Hollmonsaid told WCCO.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and the possibility of arson is being taken into account.