KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An elderly man is recovering after being pulled from his burning home early Tuesday morning.

The fire broke out just before 2 a.m. near 46th and Bales.

Firefighters said that when they arrived, they saw flames and smoke pouring out of the back of the home.

Fire crews said they found an elderly man, who family identified as 77-year-old James Allen, in the back bedroom and had to pull him out of the home.

Allen was rushed to the hospital to be treated in the ICU for smoke inhalation.

Firefighters were able to extinguish the flames quickly, but the fire did cause significant damage to the home.

Investigators said they were still trying to determine what caused the fire. They did say the home did not have working smoke detectors.

“The tragedy is  we don’t have any working smoke detectors in this home and with the push that we have right now with free smoke smoke detectors… those are very valuable tools to get people out of house fire as safe as possible,” Battalion chief James Garrett said.