EVERETT - A 48-year-old man severely burned in a house fire Wednesday died early yesterday afternoon.
Eldon Simmons died at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where he was airlifted after firefighters rescued him from his burning home on Lombard Avenue in North Everett.
He was burned over 80 percent of his body

EVERETT - After years of freely and publicly expressing his contempt for firefighters, paramedics and police, Eldon Simmons was rescued from his burning home yesterday by Everett firefighters.
Simmons, 48, was in critical condition last night at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with burns over 80 percent of his body, many of them third-degree.
The fire that destroyed Simmons' home at 1231 1/2 Lombard Ave.
was reported at 10:58 a.m., Battalion Chief Bob Schaller said.
A young girl at a nearby convenience store reported the blaze after she heard a large explosion, looked around the corner and saw flames licking at the roof, Schaller said. The explosion was caused when flames caused a short circuit in an electric meter mounted near the house's back door, he said.
Neighbors, police, firefighters and Simmons' landlord described Simmons as well-known locally for standing on street corners and making obscene gestures to passing police cars, fire engines and ambulances.
"He hates police, hates fire people," Schaller said.
Neighbors and fire officials said they didn't know why Simmons has such strong feelings against firefighters and police.
Yesterday, the first crew of firefighters at the scene found Simmons collapsed on the floor inside the house, near his front door. They took him outside and gave him cardiopulmonary resuscitation, then went back inside to fight the fire, Schaller said.
The fire apparently began in a dining room. Assistant Fire Marshal Warren Burns attributed it to "human error" but did not elaborate other than to say he was "relatively certain" it was accidental. He estimated damage to the house at $70,000