NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Despite frantic efforts by neighbors and firefighters, a man was killed in a house fire in Antioch.

Video: Family Loses Friend In Antioch Fire

The blaze occurred shortly before 11 p.m. Thursday night on Roxanne Drive.

A neighbor driving by saw the flames, ran to the front door and started pounding on it. He then yelled for other neighbors to come help.

"I just feel like I needed to help him. I was just trying to wake him. I see him out here in the yard. He's really a nice fellow. I was just trying to get him out of there," said neighbor Tony McCord.

Fire crews found Charles Jackson on the bedroom floor. Neighbors said they had hoped that he wasn’t in the house.

Paul and Kathryn Affainie, who live next door to Jackson, said they saw the flames and knew it wasn't good.

"I was very positive he was home, so I was screaming, 'He's in there. He's in there. He's in there. He's sleeping,'" said Paul Affainie.

Paul Affainie went next door with another neighbor and tried desperately to wake Jackson.

"We kept banging, banging. We didn't know why he wasn't responding. We went to the other side and tried kicking the door down," he said.

Jackson wasn't responding because he had inhaled smoke and soot and was passed out in an upstairs bedroom where he died, a medical examiner said.

Kathryn Affainie said she's trying to figure out how to tell her 3-year-old daughter Elise that Jackson is gone.

Jackson's April 12 birthday was only two days different from the Affainies' daughter's. Jackson had given her a card for her birthday.

They said Jackson treated their daughter like she was his own.

"She really loved him just like he loved everybody else. He was the real deal. He was selfless," Paul Affainie said.

Officials said the fire probably started in the kitchen.

A fire department representative said investigators believe Jackson was cooking in the kitchen where the fire started and that the fire is being ruled an accident.