CASWELL – An 84-year-old man died Saturday night in a house fire in northern Maine that started after he stacked wood on his wood-burning stove to dry out.

Joseph Cote’s body was found at the foot of the basement stairs in his single-family home in Caswell, 60 miles north of Houlton, state Public Safety Department spokesman Stephen McCausland said Sunday.

The fire was reported by someone passing by before 9 p.m. Saturday. Three investigators from the State Fire Marshal’s Office were sent to the scene, McCausland said.

Cote had stacked wood on top of his wood-burning stove to dry it out. The wood caught fire and spread to the rest of the house, where Cote lived alone.