Body Discovered In North Tulsa House Fire

Tulsa fire investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a fire early Monday morning where a man's body was found inside. Investigators were out on the scene for hours, trying to figure what started the fire near Highway 75 and Pine.

Firefighters tell us it could be a while before they sort exactly what happened. Officials describe the fire at the corner of Trenton and Ute as intense.

Neighbors called it in around 5:15 Monday morning. Lacrisha Wallace lives across the street, and when she woke up, she had no idea what was happening.

"We thought that this apartment was on fire, so we had to hurry up and make sure our friends was ok," Wallace said. "No, I got a phone call thinking it was our apartment on fire and it was that house on fire."

Captain Stan May, with the Tulsa Fire Department said, "Quite a bit of flames and smoke showing. It's about a 1,000 square foot house. After they extinguished the flames, they found the body in the back corner of the house."

Tulsa Fire tells us the body was buried under a pile of debris, and that it was burned so badly, they weren't sure if the victim was a man or woman.

Neighbors, like Wallace, said they had seen people go in and out of the house for a couple years, one man in particular. Wallace thinks he is the one who didn't make it out.

"I was shocked. I really was," Wallace said. "I was like, ‘Oh my God, the wrong person, the wrong time.'"

Tulsa Fire said they won't officially point to a cause of the fire until they find out how the victim died. One of the challenges Medical Examiners now face is identifying the body.

Captain May said no relatives ever showed up at the scene to help figure out who the victim was, and that he wouldn't be surprised if it took a day or more to identify the person.