Highland Township Man Dies In Mobile Home Fire

HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP (WWJ) - A Highland Township man was killed Friday, trapped in his burning house.

Fire Chief James Crunk said neighbors heard the man screaming from inside the mobile home but they weren't able to reach him in time.

"They tried to open the front door to try to pull him out, but the heat and everything else was so intense that they couldn't get in to get him," Crunk said.

Crunk said they got the call at 4:40 a.m. and the home was completely engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived before 5 a.m. The blaze was extinguished by 11 a.m.

Two homes next door were also damaged.

"One of them has melted siding on it and the other one's got melted siding, and also we had to cut open the roof on there because the heat was so much that the insulation started smoldering," Crunk said. "So we had to open the roof on that and get the insulation out so that we didn't have another structure fire."

The Oakland County Fire Investigation Unit is looking into the cause of the fire.

The victim's name was not immediately released while investigators worked to positively identify him.

"This is a pretty bad one...I've been on (the job) 35 years, and this is my first fatal structure fire," Crunk said.