Then a window shattered, and a gloved hand touched the man's head.

Firefighters pulled Saunders from his bed about 11:30 a.m., saving him from the only corner left of the four-bedroom bungalow off Roxboro Road.

He had inhaled some of the thick, black smoke that filled the room and was taken to Durham Regional Hospital for treatment, Battalion Chief Barry Yeargan said.

The victim's brother, Joe Saunders, 60, was at a nearby auto parts store when he saw fire trucks speed toward the small home the two men shared.

While firefighters shot a prismatic stream of water at his attic, Joe Saunders watched wooden joists crumble like a stack of blackened wooden matchsticks.

"Let it burn all the way down," he said, barely moving his lips. He looked up the home's brick stoop and pointed at a pile of soggy black debris.

Minutes before, it was his mother's collection of books and vintage Reader's Digest magazines. She died last month, and the magazines and the house were some of the last reminders of her the Saunderses had.

"Let it burn," he said. "I don't want to look at it. Not like that."

Joe Saunders said he and his brother had been living without electricity for months and had relied on an old iron stove for heat.

Investigators said they were still trying to determine late Thursday what caused the fire.

Staff writer Samiha Khanna can be reached at 956-2468 or skhanna@newsobserver.com.