At least one person died in a massive house fire in Carrollton on Wednesday night.
Neighbors said they heard a loud boom and, within seconds, the home in the 2300 block of Westbrook Drive was in flames. Witnesses described it as looking like a fireball as burning in the middle of the house, with flames shooting through the roof.
"I was just in the house on the telephone and heard this tremendous boom, which I thought was maybe a gas explosion," said Jeanette Fitzgerald, who lives almost directly behind the home. "[I] ran to the front gate. By the time I got to the front gate, the whole house was massive flames, from one side to the other."
Neighbors said they think a man lived at the house by himself with three dogs.
The Carrollton Fire Department confirmed that one person died in the fire.
"The main thing is right now, we have companies inside, going very cautiously through every room, trying to determine if there is anyone else in the structure," Fire Chief John Murphy said. "We cannot confirm or deny that at this point in time."
Investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire and explosion Wednesday night. Police tell NBC 5 they have a theory on what happened and how the homeowner died, but nothing confirmed yet and still have a ways to go on the investigation.
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They do tell us after a thorough search of the home, there were no other victims inside.
We talked to a neighbor before the sun came up Thursday morning who saw the flames from a distance.
“It just blew me away that something so dramatic could happen right here,” said Darron McCoy who stopped by on his way to work. “I’ve never seen a fire that big. When I came out the house was ablaze. I mean the whole house was just burning down.”
NBC 5's Amanda Guerra and Mark Schnyder contributed to this report.
