It happened around 4:30 p.m. on the 2400 block of North 17th Street.
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Philadelphia firefighters quickly arrived on the scene and extinguished the flames in less than 30 minutes. But once inside, crews made a tragic discovery -- a 65-year-old man dead on a bedroom floor.
"I just seen them knocking the windows out and stuff like that. I wanted to know where was Eddie at? That's all I wanted to know," said Dorothia Brown, of North Philadelphia.
Neighbors identify the victim as Eddie, who had previously been homeless.
"A friend of ours took him off the street and put him over there, and we've been taking care of him since then," said Brown.
She says neighbors provided him with food and clothes and other necessities.
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"We like family around here, basically," Brown added.
Officials said the man was the only person inside at the time. They're now trying to figure out how the fire started.
Neighbors say the man was an amputee, which may have prevented him from escaping.
Fire officials say when they entered the home they did not hear smoke alarms.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.