BRADFORD – A local man was killed early Tuesday morning when fire raged through a mobile home on Middle Road.

Randall Brackett Sr., 49, perished in the fire, authorities confirmed Tuesday evening. His identity was initially withheld pending notification of his family.

The fire, which a neighbor reported in a 911 call at 4:08 a.m., reduced the mobile home to a charred, smoking heap of twisted metal and ice.

Firefighters had to battle the fire for several hours in bitter cold weather and a number of them complained of cold hands and toes. The temperature was about minus 7 degrees Fahrenheit when the fire crews first arrived. No firefighter, however, was injured.

The first wave of firefighters reached the scene at 4:21 a.m. and found the house engulfed in flames, Scott DeMoranville, Bradford assistant chief, said Tuesday afternoon.

“There was fire coming out all the windows,” he said.

DeMoranville, one of the first firefighters at the scene, said he found it worrisome that although there were vehicles in the driveway, the homeowner had not come forward.

“When I got on scene, I conversed with the chief,” DeMoranville said. “We asked ourselves if we knew they weren’t in it [the structure]. The answer was no.”

The fire was too involved at that point for crews to search for a person, he said.

After the fire was sufficiently tamed to allow a search of the home, Brackett’s body was discovered in what appeared to be a bedroom, under a piece of roofing material.

The fire may have been caused by a wood stove, the assistant chief said, though it is under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office.

The extreme cold caused some difficulties with water supply, DeMoranville said.

“We were able to maintain a water source to fill the trucks, but had a problem accessing water because the valves froze up,” he said.

Crews obtained water from the pump house of the nearby Parker Lumber Co.

A crew of about 32 from the Bradford, Hudson and Corinth fire departments fought the fire. The Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department and investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office also responded.

“The mop-up stage probably started somewhere in the area of 5 a.m., and we finally cleared the scene up there at 12:48 this afternoon,” DeMoranville said. “It makes for a long day for a lot of volunteers.”

By midmorning, the mobile home had been reduced to a smoking heap of rubble.

Yellow police line stretched across the ends of the circular driveway, and an ambulance was parked next to neat stacks of firewood.

The trailer was located in a forested spot set back from the road. Some tall firs next to the home looked scorched and deadened by the fire’s extreme heat.

Giant plumes of smoke rose from the blackened site of the mobile home. No rooms, doorways or walls of the home remained.

The only immediately identifiable object was a burned metal wood stove, still standing upright in the other debris.

Firefighters had difficulty maneuvering because of the icy driveway and road. One firefighter fell getting into a vehicle.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.