Tracy Davis struggled as she stepped onto the side porch of her Ypsilanti Township home Tuesday and glanced at her neighbor’s house next door.

The night before seemed a blur, she said: firefighters flooding the street, her husband doing his best to break open a window of the home as smoke poured out. Crews later found her neighbor dead on the kitchen floor inside.

Authorities have not officially released the man’s name pending notification of family.

“I cried, it was just so overwhelming,” Davis said, recalling the fire that began at 1223 Commonwealth Ave. Monday evening. “To see them bringing him out, I’m still just stunned.”

A man died in a fire Monday at 1223 Commonwealth Avenue in Ypsilanti Township. Authorities said the fire was contained to the kitchen inside.

Heidi Fenton | AnnArbor.com

Tracy Davis and her husband, Louis Davis, glanced out their windows just after 5 p.m. to see heavy smoke coming from the home next door, she recalled.

Louis Davis ran over, removing a window air-conditioning unit to see what was going on as his wife began to dial 911. He called the homeowner, who was away but worried that his roommate might be inside.

“It was just a lot of smoke coming through the door, through the windows,” Tracy Davis said.

Fire crews came around the corner minutes later and her husband stepped back as they broke down a door and got inside. They later confirmed what the couple had feared: their neighbor had been trapped inside.

Ypsilanti Township Fire Capt. Larry James said an autopsy was scheduled for Tuesday to determine the man’s cause of death and help explain what may have happened.

Authorities believe his clothing somehow caught fire after he lit a cigarette on a gas stove inside.

James said crews arrived on the scene at 5:50 p.m. and found him lying on the kitchen floor. Though the kitchen sustained fire damage, only smoke reached the other rooms.

The house appeared untouched Tuesday afternoon, only the faint smell of smoke lingering in the air. Neighbors still are trying to understand how a fire that seemed no more than thick smoke took the life of a man of whom they have fond memories.

“I feel so bad. It’s like the what-ifs, the supposes, could we have gotten in there and saved him?” Tracy Davis said. “It was too late, too late.”

Davis recalled the first time her husband and son met their neighbor, as the man walked outside with a bag of trash about two years ago. He looked unfamiliar, and the two were caught off-guard as they wondered what was going on.

“He thought he was robbing the house,” Tracy Davis recalled of her husband’s reaction.

Their neighbor wasn’t fazed. “Thanks for looking out for us,” he told Louis Davis that day.

Jenna Adkins, who lives nearby, said she had known the man for years and worried he tried to put the fire out himself—that was the kind of man he was, she said, always trying to work things out.

“He would ask if he could mow your grass, take in your trash cans,” Adkins said. “He was that guy. He had such a big heart.”

Heidi Fenton covers police courts for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at heidifenton@annarbor.com or 734-623-4673. You also can follow her on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.

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