"Man, it was just rough this morning. I just couldn't believe it. I just couldn't believe it. I'm just glad nobody was in there," said neighbor Anthony Wilson. "I heard something go boom. I said, 'Oh shoot!' And then, that was it, man.'"
The grandfather was able to get out of the house, but later collapsed after an apparent heart attack. Paramedics were able to revive him, and he was rushed to the hospital.
Wilson said he'd been talking to the man just second before, and was shocked when he learned he'd had a heart attack.
"Yeah, we were standing right there, right in front of the house. This was before anybody got here, and I wanted to make sure nobody was in the house. And he was cool, he was okay. He had his cell phone, he had his jacket on, and we were talking," said Wilson.
Firefighters say when they arrived there was heavy smoke and flames coming from the home. They were able to get the blaze under control, but the roof and attic of the structure is totally destroyed.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it may have begun in a laundry area.
"When I was talking to him, I asked him what's going on? What happened, what happened? He said he believed the dryer overheated or something, cause he said it looked like it was coming through the dryer," Wilson recalled.
