A man was found dead after a fire engulfed a mobile home in Charles County, Maryland, Wednesday morning.
A passerby spotted the fire on the 1700 block of Marshall Hall Road in Bryans Road about 5:40 a.m. and called 911.
Maurice Hopkins, a neighbor, was headed out to tend his sheep when he spotted the fire, which reached higher than nearby tree tops.
“The flame was out of control,” he told News4. “He didn’t have a chance.”
When firefighters arrived, the mobile home was engulfed in flames. They rushed inside and found a man and his dog unresponsive near the door.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, but police have not yet released his identity.
The dog also died.
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Hopkins said the victim was a young man who lived alone and cared for horses.
"In fact, I was just over there yesterday and took hay for the horses," he said.
Fire investigators said the fire appears accidental, and could have been sparked by an extension cord. There were also hoarding conditions in the home, investigators said.
“It was so much fire and so much melted,” firefighter Bill Smith said. “It’s hard for us to determine exactly what was going on inside.”
According to the fire marshall, the smoke alarm in the mobile home had no battery.
Elsewhere in Charles County, a woman died in a separate fire at a mobile home on Goldie Farm Place in Waldorf, fire officials said. the fire started about 3:30 p.m. and the cause is under investigation.
