A man was found dead inside a Suitland, Maryland, home after a small fire Tuesday morning.
Firefighters were called to the 4600 block of Brookfield Drive at 3:45 a.m. for a fire at a duplex. The victim's next door neighbor called after smelling smoke and hearing his smoke alarm.
Fire officials said the fire was relatively small and apparently started in the second-floor bedroom where the victim was found in his bed.
Family members identified the victim as 50-year-old Larry Littlejohn Jr. Authorities have not released the victim's name.
"Family's taking it rough right this minute," cousin James Buckson said.
Ray Spires went to the home after getting a call that his lifelong friend had been found dead.
"I mean, it doesn't look bad," Spires said. "I'm shocked, shocked."
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Lavern Conaway, the neighbor who called 911, said she'd tried to alert Littlejohn.
"I called; there was no answer. So I went to the back of the house and I was banging on the door. No answer but I could smell a strong odor there. I went around the corner; I did see smoke [so] I called 911."
Fire officials said an autopsy will determine what caused Littlejohn's death.
Neighbors had nothing but nice things to say about Littlehohn.
"It's terrible," said Gary Fulwood. "I mean, he was a nice guy. We spoke every time you saw him. He pretty much, he lived there by himself and he just seemed to be a nice guy. "
"It was just out of nowhere. I feel bad for anybody who loses someone like that," said neighbor Romona Wylie.
"He was a wonderful person, and I just hate to hear he died so tragically," said former neighbor Joyce Quick, who put flowers in front of the house where Littlejohn grew up.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. At this point, investigators are not calling the victim's death a fire fatality.
"There's a lot to be investigated," said Mark Brady of Prince George's County Fire and EMS.
However, Brady said there was no sign of foul play at this point. He suggested natural causes and said it doesn't look like a typical fire fatality.
So far this year there have been six fatal fires in Prince George's County, compared to five fatal fires in all of 2017.
