PARKLAND, Wash. (AP) -- A man identified by witnesses as a 90-year-old retired dentist has died in a house fire that investigators blamed on a smoldering cigarette.
Flames were shooting from two sides of the house and the building was filled with smoke when firefighters arrived about 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Central Pierce Fire and Rescue officials said.
A man identified by neighbors and relatives as Dr. George Blaine Johnson, a retired dentist and widower who lived by himself and had built the house about 50 years ago, was found near a chair in which he normally slept, and he died at the scene.
Investigators believe he heard a smoke alarm but was overcome before he could reach safety, Deputy Fire Chief Doug Willis said.
''There were remains of cigarettes near the area of origin and the occupant was a smoker,'' Willis said. ''That seems to be the cause of the fire.''
Paul Souza, a neighbor who had known Johnson for more than a quarter of a century, told KING Television of Seattle he heard the alarm Sunday morning as he was washing his car.
''I just ran over there, knowing that Grandpa Johnson's by himself,'' Souza said.
He said he wrapped a wet towel over his face, kicked down a door and tried to find Johnson but was driven back outside by the heat and smoke.
''It was just dark black. I couldn't even see my hands,'' he said.
