Police Investigating Cause of Deadly Oklahoma City House Fire

News9.com

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A structure fire in south Oklahoma City left one person dead.

Firefighters said a mobile home in the 700 block of Southwest Lee was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived around 10:30 Friday night. They found one person dead inside the home.

According to friends and neighbors, the man killed inside was Ralph Gibson who went by 'Meryl'.

"I just figured he got sick again and someone called an ambulance, but I got right there and I didn't see that trailer, and it took me a minute to realize he's in there. Sad thing man," said Verdell Bell, who also lived in trailer home with Meryl. "He was one of the first guys I met when I came here, and me and him been sort of friends ever since."

Bell said he was at work at the time of the deadly blaze.

According to many people in the neighborhood, Meryl often kept to himself, but he was a person everybody knew and everybody liked.

"Sad thing man, sad to start the new year like this, I know that," Bell said.

The total damage from the fire was estimated at $6,000.

Firefighters said arson and homicide investigators will be working the case as a standard procedure. The cause of the fire is under investigation. However, investigators said right now there is nothing suspicious about the blaze.