SMITH COUNTY, TX (KLTV) - Authorities have released the name of the man who died after a mobile home fire.
The fire happened around 2:40 Thursday afternoon at the Cedars Mobile Home Park on CR 195 in Tyler.
Michael Patrick Flowers, 59, was home alone when the fire broke out in his living room.
Smith County Fire Marshals spent Friday morning investigating the fire the left three homes destroyed.
Flowers' neighbor Carolyn Bain discovered the blaze.
Bain called her landlord and she and her husband grabbed a few belongings and left their home before the fire spread.
Ruth Bolt and her husband Tim own the Cedars Mobile home complex. Ruth was too emotional to speak on camera, but she described the moments after she received the call that Flowers' home was on fire.
"I was in shock. I just reacted. I grabbed my cell phone and ran. I ran so fast I actually left my 6-year-old at home," Bolt recalled, "Whenever I got down there, the fire had just started and we knocked on the door, the walls. We tried to get close but the windows exploded."
Flowers made it out of his home, but collapsed in his yard.
He died on the scene.
The cause of death is still undetermined.
Officials say the fire likely started in Flowers' living room, and investigators have ruled out any electrical or intentional causes.
Authorities have ordered an autopsy of the body.
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