PLAINWELL, Mich. (AP) -- Residents of an apartment complex couldn't pinpoint the origin of a smoky smell that they had noticed for a couple of days.
Then a woman decided Saturday evening to check on her 47-year-old neighbor by using a front-door key he had given her.
She unlocked the door, went inside and immediately noticed some soot. Alarmed, she called the Plainwell Department of Public Safety.
Responding officers found the man's body in a bedroom and signs of a living room fire that had burned itself out.
''The fire seemed to start around a recliner'' on Thursday night, said Bill Bomar, public safety director. ''Our speculation is that he was smoking and went to bed, and the cigarette smoldered there.''
The man apparently smelled smoke but collapsed from smoke inhalation as he got out of bed to investigate. He was the lone occupant in the apartment, one of eight units in his building.
''One thing that's strange is that the fire was bad enough that he died, yet nobody else noticed it enough to call us,'' Bomar told the Kalamazoo Gazette. ''Those apartments must be pretty well built and airtight.''
The body was taken to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for an autopsy. The victim's name was not released as of Wednesday morning, pending the body's formal identification.
Plainwell is located about 35 miles south of Grand Rapids.
