Man dead after fire in Chester County

EASTTOWN TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- One person is dead, and a firefighter is injured following a fire at a townhouse complex in Easttown Township, Chester County.

The fire broke out on the 500 block of Foxwood Lane just after 11am.

A man was inside the townhome.

"This comes as a real shock to us," said Syed Numan, a friend of the victim. "He was a family man, a very loving father, and a loving husband as well."

Friends say the rest of the family wasn't home, but some of the neighbors were.

"I smelled something burning upstairs where the bedrooms are, and when I went downstairs, I saw a little bit of smoke, mistiness," said Haly Johnson.

She says she got her family out quickly.

"My daughter ran outside, and she saw that the windows of the adjoining house had smoke coming out of the two windows, and that's when I called 911," she said.

Investigators quickly learned the fire started in the basement; when firefighters got to the scene, a family member came running up to them, saying someone was trapped inside.

"It's surreal, really," said Johnson.

Firefighters, who were here within minutes, worked to fight the flames.

"There was one firefighter that was injured, he sustained a minor injury and he was transported to a local hospital. He's expected to be ok," said Justin McClure, the deputy director of fire services for Chester County.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but firefighters say they will work to get answers for this grieving community.

"Anytime this occurs, it is a tragedy and our feelings are with the family and the community when this occurs and we're going to do everything we can to find out why this happened and hopefully prevent it from happening again," said McClure.