SAN ANTONIO – Staff at the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office will be working to find out the exact cause of death for a 67-year-old man who was found inside his burning home Thursday morning.
San Antonio firefighters found him after knocking down flames that were shooting from the front of the home, located in the 4000 block of Commercial Avenue.
“It appears the fire originated, kind of, in the middle of the structure, toward the front,” Joseph Arrington, a public information officer for SAFD said. “The victim was located near that same area.”
Arrington said neighbors had called 911 around 9:30 a.m. after seeing smoke and flames coming from the unusual home: a metal building.
“It looks like, maybe at one time, it was a business,” he said. “But it’s now converted to living quarters.”
As firefighters arrived, neighbors told them they feared the man, who used a wheelchair to get around, was still inside the home.
Fire crews had to knock down large flames to enter the home and reach the man, who was in his 60s.
He was already dead when they found him, Arrington said.
“Unfortunately, (for) this one, the fire was large,” Arrington said. “When we got here, heavy fire (was) coming out of the front of the structure.”
Firefighters were not able to say right away whether the man died as a result of the fire or if, perhaps, there was something else that caused his death.
San Antonio Police Department homicide detectives and arson investigators were called in to investigate the cause of the fire.
Arrington said having police detectives as part of the investigation is now standard procedure when there is a death involved.
As of Thursday afternoon, the name of the man who died had not been released.