Man dies in early morning Garden City house fire

GARDEN CITY, MIch. (WJBK) - A morning fire near the corner of Florence and Farmington in Garden City claimed the life of the man who lived inside.

The fire department got the call just 9 a.m. on Thursday from a passerby who saw smoke coming from the house earlier in the day.

"Units arrived on scene, they had to break the door down," said Catherine Harman of the Garden City Fire Department. "The fire appeared to have started in the basement area. They did find one person inside the home and removed him."

One neighbor spoke about the victim.

"He stayed in his house pretty much by himself," said Kimberly Holiday. "You see him in the front window, getting his mail. He was older, at one point he was in walker.

Fire investigators say the home had working smoke detectors and the victim may have suffered from smoke inhalation in his sleep. It is too early to tell because his medical history is unknown.

"He wasn't burned," Harman said. "He was on the floor. It was an uninvolved floor; the house was full of smoke."

Meanwhile, the cause of the fire is still under investigation.