United States (Virginia) - One man died in a downtown Lynchburg blaze that kept firefighters busy for hours Tuesday evening, fire officials said. Flames spewed from the two-story, wood-frame house at 111 Cabell St. across from the Point of Honor museum. The house sat in a row of homes that date to the late 1800s in the historic Daniel's Hill neighborhood.

Lynchburg Fire Department Battalion Chief Paul Kilgore said the initial call to the house came at 8:10 p.m., and the first unit on scene arrived at 8:16.

The house was engulfed by then, Kilgore said. One male victim was found inside during a search, he said.

Kilgore did not confirm the identity of the victim because some family members had not been notified.

Neighbors recalled the house's resident as a man who would give anyone a hand.

Terry Griffin, who lives in the neighborhood, said he only knew the resident's first name, and called him by his nickname, "Pops."

"He was a good old dude," Griffin said, adding he had known the man for about 30 years. "He would help anybody."

Griffin said he was coming home after work when he noticed the blaze, which had fully engulfed the front porch, and a friend who was with him called emergency dispatchers.

"If anybody was in there, he wasn't coming out the front door," Griffin said.

Lynchburg Fire Marshal Greg Wormser said firefighters were initially delayed in their attack because the fire had caused a power line to snap, which then fell across the street.

Wormser said because of the type of construction of the house, even one or two extra minutes would not likely have saved the house or the resident.

He said in that type of house, when a fire starts, it spreads quickly.

Kilgore said firefighters had the fire under control as of 10:45 p.m.

The fire, he said, was so hot that radiant heat from the blaze caught a truck in front of the house on fire.

He said workers initially had shut off electricity to a whole block of houses, but he expected Tuesday night that power would be restored by about 1 a.m.

Written by The News and Advance