BETHLEHEM —A man's body was found Thursday in the charred remains of an apartment building fire in Slingerlands, police and fire officials said.

There were no sprinklers in the Meadowbrook Apartments building, given the building's age, officials said.

Police identified the victim late Thursday as an adult male but declined to give his name or age. An autopsy is scheduled for noon Friday at Ellis Hospital.

Two emergency workers suffered minor injuries, police said.

The first calls for the fire came in around 2:05 a.m., Bethlehem police Commander Adam Hornick said. By the time the first emergency workers arrived, the building was engulfed.

"At this point the cause and origin investigation is just about to start, so this will be a very long process," Hornick said. Police will be on site overnighht and into the day on Friday, he said.

Several fire departments were called in to help the North Bethlehem Fire District deal with the fire at the Meadowbrook Apartments off Blessing Road.

The 8-unit structure included the office for the apartment complex. Three other buildings suffered minor damage, fire officials said. Over 40 residents were evacuated from surrounding buildings as firefighters struggled to contain the fire.

Once the fire was extinguished, rescuers spent the morning trying to track down all of the residents and discovered one person could not be accounted for.

Charlene Brown, of Guilderland, came over to the fire scene shortly after 7 a.m. She said her parents, who were in Florida, lost their apartment to the fire.

"I was just in the apartment a couple days ago to drop off some stuff," she said. "I don't know what would've caused this. They don't know what to do. They're coming home from Florida next week and they have nowhere to go."

Brown said her parents had moved to the complex less than a year ago.

Officials said the fire caused minor damage to other nearby buildings.

A gas line caught fire, making it difficult for some residents to return to their homes, the Red Cross reported.

The Red Cross said it helped about 20 people after the blaze.