LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -
Clark County firefighters on Wednesday removed a body from the second floor of a townhouse that was nearly destroyed by an early-morning fire.
The victim, who hasn't been identified, was found by first responders who entered the home at the Garden Park complex near Desert Inn and Sandhill roads.
A neighbor told FOX5 the victim was a man. It's unknown if he lived alone in the two-story unit.
"By the time I got out to the front of the building, it was forty-foot flames," said neighbor Brigitte Ford, who shot cell phone video of the fire.
Firefighters had to remove the body through a window because a staircase inside the home was severely damaged by flames, investigators said.
"Searching the entire second floor, we found a victim upstairs," explained Erik Newman with the Clark County Fire Department.
The fire started just before 5 a.m., forcing neighbors to evacuate as fire crews arrived.
"I knew them; they were very quiet and kept to themselves. I'm not sure if his wife still was there," Ford said of the victim.
Ford went on to say she could hear ammunition exploding during the fire and she had suspected her neighbors of having been hoarders and of having legal troubles.
"I did have the Sheriff's Office at my door a few nights ago asking if I had seen him," Ford said.
No one else was injured, but the American Red Cross said it would assist one resident who could not return to their property.
"I'm not going to be let in there," said Ford. "They're worried about the structural damage to the fire wall in between. Thank God there was a fire wall."
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(Doug Johnson/FOX5)
Fire trucks line an entrance to the Garden Park Townhomes early Wednesday morning. (Dave Lawrence/FOX5)
(Dave Lawrence/FOX5)
