An elderly man is dead after a fire early Saturday morning in Schenectady, and officials said the cause of that fire is accidental. YNN's Madeleine Rivera has more.

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SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- "The smell of smoke burning, the whole house was filled, couldn't see two feet in front of your face," said Aaron McNulty, fire victim.

That's what he woke up to Saturday morning when he realized his house was on fire.

"I looked out my window and I saw flames in my window, got everybody out, unfortunately we lost a family pet and an elderly gentleman that lived downstairs," noted McNulty.

The fire broke out a little before 7:00 a.m. at 1082 Helderberg Avenue. Firefighters said it was a pretty intense scene.

"When initial crews got here, they found fire blowing out of the window of the first floor extending to the second floor into the attic," explained Fire Chief Michael Della Rocco.

A 86-year-old man who lived alone on the first floor died in the fire.

"They went into search for him. But they could not find him so odds are he possibly passed away in his sleep peacefully," said McNulty.

"I had at least three crews in there attacking the fire searching for the victim and we did have to pull them out. We were able to extinguish the fire. We were able to get back in and locate the victim who I said very unfortunately, perished in the fire," Chief Della Rocco said.

McNulty lived on the second floor with his father, the landlord, and his mother. All three were able to get out safely. Now, he says they're working on processing what happened.

McNulty added, "I'm a little beside myself. I don't think the realization has hit me so far yet. But we're just gonna have to take it one step at a time and get our lives back together and move on from there."

Deputy Chief Michael Gillespie confirmed that the fire was accidental. The elderly man was a pipe smoker. Fire officials believe that he was smoking his pipe when he dropped it, and the fire quickly spread through different parts of the house.