FORT WORTH, Texas — A 75-year-old man was killed in a fire in Fort Worth Wednesday, officials say.
Fire officials responded to a house fire in the 2000 block of North Edgewood Terrace shortly before 3 p.m.
Ramona Bruns, a neighbor who lives in the Central Meadowbrook neighborhood, called 911 after she noticed smoke in the area while running an errand.
"I went down to go to my house, and I could smell smoke and see it," Bruns said. "I couldn’t tell what it was so I circled this block, and you could see the smoke coming out of the corners of the house."
Bruns said a construction worker in the area tried to break through the door but was unsuccessful. Fire crews arrived shortly after.
"You could see the fire coming out behind the chimney catching the trees on fire," Bruns said.
According to Fort Worth Fire PIO Craig Trojacek, fire crews found the man deceased in the back of the home. Trojacek said crews arrived at the scene within five minutes of the call.
Crews had trouble locating the man due to a high level of smoke in the home, Trojacek said.
"In an instance like this where that smoke hasn’t made it out of the roof yet, it’s thicker, denser and pitch black when you walk into those homes," Trojacek said.
Several of the deceased man's neighbors and friends told WFAA he lived alone and spent his life training service dogs for the blind community. Recently, he began working in a bakery for fun.
"Anytime we come to a house where there's somebody found deceased, that sticks with us a little bit. Should we have gone left instead of right? That weighs on us," Trojacek said.
WFAA chopper footage showed part of the roof and back portion of the house charred and damaged by the fire and multiple fire crews and fire engines on the scene.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.