VIRGINIA BEACH (WAVY) — One person died in a house fire overnight in Virginia Beach.

Fire officials say it happened around midnight in the 1600 block of Mill Landing Road, in rural Virginia Beach. When firefighters arrived they found heavy fire coming from the back of the house, and one fatality was reported. Photo from the scene show major damage.

The victim hasn’t been identified and their age is unknown, officials say. A neighbor told 10 On Your Side that a man lived in the house.

“I kind of woke up, and basically to fire,” said Lucas Rogers, who lives next door.  

“He was generally a nice guy. He would come over every once in a while, and say hello. He was a good dude. Never any bad vibes from him, always a nice guy.” 

We put up Drone 10, and you can see how the fire started in the back where the sunroom was and moved toward the front. Fire officials also confirm that’s the area it started, because that’s where the fire was coming from when they showed up.   

Rogers said it was a tough morning, 

“It was pretty sad. I woke up, and it was already going. Very, very, very big fire that is for sure.” 

Virginia Beach Fire has not released the name of the victim because relatives have not been located, and that is not surprising to Lucas Rogers, whose family had the same problem.

“My family was trying to figure out if he had family for the last month to get hold of them to let them know he’s not doing so well. We wanted to say ‘Hey you may want to step in, and see if he’s all right.’  He didn’t have any family is what we found out, really sad,” he said.

That was a concern because the man seemed to have some struggles.

“One time he asked to come over here, and use our phones, and my dad went over to help him with his phones and he said none of his phones were plugged into the wall,” he said. Rogers also says there were concerns about the man having memory issues.

“One morning he came over at 6 or 7, and trying to use the phone, and then a couple of hours later he came over to use the phone again, making the same phone call and leaving the same message to the same company.” 

Several cats in the home are unaccounted for.

The fire is under investigation. Virginia Beach Fire Department investigators have not determined the cause of fire that killed the resident.