Update, Friday, Feb. 22: Bethlehem police have ruled the cause of the fire as electrical, and said Woodworth died of smoke inhalation.
A Glenmont homeowner has died after a fire engulfed his home on Glenmont Road.
Firefighters from the Selkirk Fire Department pulled Brad L. Woodworth, 61, from a bathroom at 173 Glenmont Road, according to Bethlehem police. He was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
The Bethlehem Police Department and the Selkirk Fire Department responded to the fire at about 10:12 p.m. and with assistance from neighboring fire departments had the structure fire extinguished in about an hour. Glenmont Road was closed for about five hours, police said.
Selkirk Fire Department Chief Bill Asprion said the fire is believed to have started in the home’s kitchen. The house was fully engulfed in flames at the time fire officials arrived on the scene. Asprion said the house could not be saved.
`Part of our early efforts was to knock the fire down enough to do a search of the home,` he said. Once the homeowner was located, fire officials focused their efforts on making sure the flames did not spread.
Officials had initially been told there were two victims trapped inside the home, but one resident had been out of town during the time of the fire, said Asprion.
The Bethlehem Police Department’s Fire Investigations Team and the state fire investigators are looking into the incident to determine the fire’s cause and origin, police said.