Plymouth man dies in house fire on Saturday afternoon

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — A man in his 50s died on Saturday after a fire broke out in his Plymouth home.

The fire chief in the town says it’s rare for a fire in the middle of the afternoon to turn deadly, adding that, sadly, this one may have been preventable.

From the outside of the home, you can barely see the damage.

But on Saturday afternoon a fire inside a second-floor bedroom of a Plymouth home turned deadly for the man who lived here.

Neighbors noticed the smoke coming from the house and called 911. Firefighters arrived a short time later – but it was still too late.

"They made their way up the second floor and got into that room and found the 58-year-old male unconscious on the floor," said Fire Chief Ed Bradley of Plymouth Fire. "So they brought him outside and began CPR and other life-saving measures and waited for the second crew to put the fire out."

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That 58-year-old man was the only one inside the home at the time. He was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital where he died. His neighbors said he was a very nice man who was active in the community.

Plymouth's Fire Chief said it’s unclear how long the fire was burning or how it started.

"The Marshal and my investigators are looking at some electrical wiring and they have to look at some other things before they can make a final determination," Chief Bradley said. "We know where it started, we are just not exactly sure why."

Unfortunately, there were no working smoke detectors on the second floor.

"The smoke detectors in the home had been removed," Chief Bradley said. "There was one laying on the kitchen table that was probably going to be installed."

A tragic reminder of the importance of the life-saving devices.

State Police did use a K-9 to search the home and no accelerants were detected. At this point the victim’s name is not being publicly released.

Cox Media Group