DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A man in his 50s died, Monday evening, after a reported explosion in an outdoor work space the backyard of a DeKalb County home.
According to Capt. Dion Bentley with DeKalb County Fire Rescue, fire crews got calls of a house fire off Norris Lake Drive around 4 p.m. When they got there, they quickly discovered that that wasn't the case, and it was a large metal shed in the backyard that was on fire.
Residents of the home told firefighters they heard a loud explosion before seeing the flames, and one of their family members who had been working in the shed did not make it out of the building.
Firefighters faced challenges in putting the flames out; the shed was 400 feet back from the street, so it took an extra coordinated effort to get enough water to the fire. The flames were also so intense that they had begun to spread to the wood line, Bentley said.
When firefighters were finally able to put out the flames, they did find the body of a man inside.
According to Bentley, the victim was working in the building to repair a mobile home. He added that the victim, the son of the property owner, often worked inside the 2,000 sq-ft building to restore vehicles, a hobby of the man.
Right now, fire investigators don't have an exact cause of the reported explosion and fire, but Bentley called it a "very tragic" incident, nonetheless.
Photos: Man dies in shed explosion
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