Mountain View man found dead in house fire

A Mountain View man was found dead inside his home early Thursday morning after a fire severely damaged and burned the interior of the house, destroyed power lines and spread to a nearby tree.

The house, on the 700 block of Lola Lane, caught fire sometime before 3 a.m., and when firefighters arrived the blaze had spread to the garage and the entire interior of the home, according to fire spokesperson Jaime Garrett.

Frantic neighbors awakened by the blaze tried unsuccessfully to alert the victim before fire crews arrived.

Fire crews were able to locate the man inside during a search.

Officials have not released the dead man’s name or information about him, and the Voice is not identifying him until next-of-kin have been notified. But neighbors who identified him to a Voice reporter said he had lived at the home for 20 years.

The house contained several rifles as well as a large amount of ammunition in the garage, which exploded during the fire, Garrett said.

“There (were) several thousands rounds in there,” said Gary MacLeod, who lives two doors down from the home. “It was like a war zone or the fourth of July with everything going on.”

Police evacuated nearby residents out of concern that the fire would spread to nearby homes, Garrett said, but no other houses were damaged. Fire crews were able to put out the fire by about 4 a.m.

Eric Chamness, who lives next door to the house, said he woke up at around 3 a.m. to the sound of crackling, and when he looked outside he realized that both the victim’s house and a nearby tree bordering his own home had caught fire. He got out of the house with his family and reported the fire.

“It was completely silent and dark,” Chamness said. “It felt like ‘was this really happening?'”

Chamness said he slammed on the door and yelled for his neighbor to get out of the house, but didn’t get a response. MacLeod said he broke through a window in an attempt to get inside, but backed off after a thick black cloud of smoke burst out the window and kept him from entering.

“(The house) was too engulfed; it had probably been burning for 15 minutes,” MacLeod said. “The firemen told us it would’ve been stupid to go in.”

McLeod said the victim lived in the area for about 20 years, and described him as a “little bit reclusive,” living alone and mostly keeping to himself. He said his neighbor was passionate about rifles and developing long-range ammunition; he was well known among the gun community and would travel to national championships.

“He had a Ph.D in electrical engineering,” he said. “He made algorithms for speed and distance … he had articles published in gun magazines.”

McLeod said when the victim moved into the neighborhood, he was very fit and would participate in tri-athletics. He was also into biking — McLeod estimated that his neighbor had about 10 different bikes. He said he victim was a friendly person and said his life was definitely on an “upward spiral.”

The Mountain View police and fire departments will be conducting a joint investigation into the cause of the fire, which is normal whenever there is a loss of life, Garrett said. She said in her nine years of working in the department, there has been only one other fire-related fatality.