An elderly Waterford man died on Thanksgiving after being pulled from a burning storage building on his property, police and fire officials said.

Thomas Birch, 77, of 171 Sand Ridge Road, died at Marietta Memorial Hospital after being taken there from the scene of the fire, Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said.

"They found him in an outbuilding with a ladder lying on top of him, and the preliminary indication is that (the cause of death) was smoke inhalation," Mincks said. "He apparently had gone into the building, maybe to extinguish the fire."

The cause of the fire had not been determined as of 9 p.m. At that time, Phil Lowe, assistant chief with the Beverly Volunteer Fire Department, said members of the Ohio Fire Marshal's office had just arrived to assist in the investigation.

Lowe said the outbuilding was about 30-by-100 feet and was used for storage of tractors, farm equipment and the like. The structure sustained interior damage, he said.

Mincks said the fire was reported by Birch's wife at 6:11 p.m. The woman told a dispatcher her husband had told her there was a fire in the outbuilding and to call 911.

The Beverly fire department responded, along with their counterparts from Watertown and the Beverly-Waterford Township Rescue Squad.

"The building was totally engulfed upon our arrival," Lowe said.

The death was at least the fifth to occur in a fire in the past two months.

Barry Ward of New Matamoras died on Oct. 6 in a fire at his home. His parents were able to escape, but Ward, 50, was handicapped and couldn't get out, officials said. A faulty furnace was the suspected cause.

Less than a week later, three people died in a house fire on Camden Avenue in Parkersburg. Killed were Amanda Reann McClain and her infant son, Conner James Dwayne Joy, and Jesse Hayes, McClain's boyfriend. They had moved in three days prior. The cause was a space heater that ignited nearby materials.

Parkersburg police last week cited the owner of the house, Michael W. Rogers, of Parkersburg, who pleaded pleaded guilty in Wood County Magistrate Court to a citation of no smoke detector on rental property and was ordered to pay $259.50 in fines and court costs.

Jess Mancini contributed.