Alaska Beat

Port Lions man dies in house fire

A fire on Kodiak Island on Monday killed a 72-year-old man and a dog, Alaska State Troopers said.

Shortly after midnight Monday, Kodiak-based troopers were notified of a residential fire in Port Lions, a community of about 175 people on the north coast of Kodiak Island. A person and a dog were in the home at the time of the fire, troopers said in an online dispatch.

The Port Lions village public safety officer and volunteer firefighters tried to extinguish the fire, but the single-family home was "heavily damaged," troopers said.

Around 4 p.m. a Deputy Fire Marshall arrived and removed remains believed to belong to Nicholas Nelson, troopers wrote.

Nelson's next of kin was at the scene, but the remains will have to be sent to the state medical examiner's office for positive identification.

The dog also died in the fire.

"The remains of the poodle were found next to the human remains," troopers spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said.

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The initial investigation revealed the fire started in the crawl space, but circumstances of the fire were immediately unclear, troopers said.

Troopers added there were smoke detectors in the home, but they appeared to not be functioning at the time of the fire.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

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