PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — Neighbors and loved ones are mourning a man who was found dead in a row home fire in North Philadelphia on Thursday morning.
The flames broke out around 5:20 a.m. on the 2500 block of North 12th Street.
Crews arrived to find heavy smoke and fire coming from the building.
Inside, firefighters found a man in a second-floor bedroom.
He was pronounced dead at the scene. His family has identified him as 63-year-old Darryl Gordon Sr.
Loved ones believe Gordon was trying to escape the flames, as his favorite chair can be seen in the second-floor window.
“From where we located the male, it looks like he recognized there was a fire,” said Philadelphia Fire Executive Chief Daniel McCarty.
They say he was a fixture in the neighborhood. A mural of his son whom he lost in 2016 is on the nearby corner.
“That was an entrepreneur. That was a positive person,” said his nephew. “Every time you’d see him…he gave you something to work with that day, like don’t forget to do this. Try hard at that. Don’t give up on that. If you needed something, you could go to him, and he got you. That’s just the way it was. Because we’re a village. I want you to remember my uncle as a good man. A great man.”
Officials say the fire was placed under control in about 30 minutes.
It’s unclear if there were any working smoke detectors in the home.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Gordon is being remembered as a father of five who was a fixture in the community.
“He was an uncle to everybody. Watching you grow up from a little kid on up. He was a good man,” said one neighbor.
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