AURORA — Two people were killed and 25 were injured, 15 of whom were taken to area hospitals, after a fire at the Fitz Apartments in Aurora on Monday night.

No information has been released about the people who died.

Aurora police detectives were on scene Tuesday investigating the possibility of arson, said Cassidee Carlson, an Aurora police spokesperson.

At about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, scanner traffic described a possible suspect as a white male in his 20s with a shaved head and a black-and-white checkered shirt, captured on video camera from a nearby 7-Eleven.

Capt. Allen Robnett, spokesman for the Aurora Fire Department, would neither confirm nor deny the suspect’s possible involvement with the fire.

Robnett said flames were soaring higher than the roof of the four-story, brick building when fire crews arrived just after 11 p.m.

“Residents were at the windows and in some cases hanging out of the windows,” he said. “We made numerous ladder rescues.”

Robnett said some people jumped from windows to safety before firefighters arrived.

He said the two people who died were on the fourth floor. Those who were injured were being treated for broken bones and smoke inhalation, he said.

Steve Southard, the maintenance manager of the building, said the two people who died were a couple from Asia who’ve lived in the building since the early 1970s.

The man who died was a janitor for Aurora Public Schools, Southard said.

His wife was an extremely friendly woman who always took time to acknowledge Southard’s children, he said.

“She always had the time to hug my son. Then she’d walk next door to the 7-Eleven and buy him a banana. That boy loves bananas,” Southard recalled with a smile.

He struggled to keep his emotions in check as he spoke of the couple.

“Two of my tenants, I knew personally, died in the fire,” Southard said. “That makes me beyond mad. I want justice.”

Ross Hagens was in his third-floor apartment when the fire broke out.

“We were trapped in our bedroom waiting,” Hagens said.

Firefighters using a ladder truck rescued him and his roommate about 11:30 p.m., he said. He went to the hospital and received treatment for smoke inhalation.

Ten patients were sent to University of Colorado Hospital, seven of whom had been treated and released by Tuesday evening, according to a hospital release. Two other patients were listed in fair condition, while the other one is in good condition.

Robnett said the fire was under investigation and declined to comment on whether arson is suspected.

Fire investigators are still trying to find the point of origin of the fire and say they are looking into reports of a man with a can of gasoline spreading the accelerant down a hallway of the burned building.

Southard said fire investigators talked with a man Tuesday morning who makes the rounds in the neighborhood carrying a red coffee can, which he uses to pick up discarded cigarette butts.

Robnett said the building predated mandatory sprinkler systems.

Southard confirmed that, saying the building was from the early 1960s. He said the building does have fire alarms and metallic, fire-resistant doors.

The fire burned so hot and spread so quickly that it melted down most of the alarms, Southard said. He credited the fire door of his apartment for separating him and his family from the flames.

The door – sides, bottom and top – was aglow from the quickly spreading fire in the hallway.

“It was like the fire had fingers and it was trying to break through the door,” Southard said.

He got his family — including a 7-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son — out through a window.

The apartment building is at 1747 Peoria St., across from the Anschutz Medical Campus.

Both 1747 and 1777 Peoria St. were evacuated; a majority of residents of 1777 were allowed to return to their homes around 7 a.m., Robnett said.

The twin, side-by-side buildings separated by a parking lot, have security cameras in the back. Southard said he could control the cameras mounted on his building using a joy stick on a dock in his apartment. The unit that stored the images, also in his apartment, was damaged in the fire. It was turned over to investigators.

The cameras and the system on the second building were not damaged. If there is an arsonist who used the back of the building for access, his image likely was captured, Southard said. The second building’s digital recordings have also been turned over to investigators.

The Red Cross set up a shelter at nearby Paris Elementary School, where 41 people checked in, Patricia Billinger, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross, said.

“It runs the whole gamut, the whole mix of people,” she said, adding that there were families, including a family of five, as well as elderly residents and college students.

Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson

Staff writers Jordan Steffen, Kirk Mitchell and Joey Bunch contributed to this report.