KITTREDGE — A house fire gutted a Kittredge duplex Wednesday night as neighbors, a sheriff’s deputy and a woman who escaped the flames watched helplessly knowing that a man was trapped inside.
“I’m just shook up,” said Jeremy Walters, a neighbor who raced to the home to help.
Flames were rising more than 15 feet above the roof of the two-story duplex when Walters got there.
“There was nothing you could do except try and comfort her,” Walters said of his neighbor, the woman who got out of the house. “She just kept saying: ‘My husband didn’t make it. My husband didn’t make it.’ “
About 10:45 p.m., at least three people called 911 to report the fire at 26180 Kingsbury Road, said Bill Maron, an Evergreen fire department spokesman.
Traveling over narrow, snow- packed roads, Evergreen volunteer firefighters took about 15 to 20 minutes to reach the home, witnesses said.
Once firefighters arrived, there was no close-by water hydrant. The heat from the fire was so intense, it melted metal, Maron said. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
The name of the victim, who was found about 12:20 a.m., had not been released by authorities.
