ORRVILLE — An 89-year-old male died outside his residence at 13855 County Road 33 Wednesday after trying to extinguish a fire.

“From preliminary investigations, it appears that he was spraying rubbish, limbs and stuff like that, and it got out of hand and looked like he was attempting to put it out,” said Scott Pilgreen, assistant state fire marshal.

Eugene Williamson died from smoke inhalation or heat exhaustion, Dallas County Chief Deputy Sheriff Randy Pugh said.

“Right now it appears to be an accidental incident,” Pugh said.

Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and the Orrville Fire Department responded to the residence at about 4:20 p.m.

By the time deputies arrived, the fire on the left half of the front yard had been put out, leaving charred grass from outside the house up to the road.

Pilgreen did not know if firefighters extinguished the fire. He did not know the condition of the man when firefighters arrived at the scene.

“That will be part of the investigation process to determine what exactly was going on before, during and after,” Pilgreen said. “We’ll be interviewing people who knew the victim and try to piece back together what happened today that led up to this.”

The body will be taken to Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Montgomery for an autopsy.

“There is still a lot of work to be done before we have all the answers,” Pilgreen said.