A man and a woman in their late 50s are dead after a house fire on Salmon River Drive in East Preston overnight.

RCMP said the fire was spotted by a passing motorist shortly before midnight, at approximately 11:45 p.m. on Wednesday.

Flames and smoke were coming out of the front of the house when the officers arrived, making it impossible for them to head into the building, said RCMP.

When Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency got to the scene, they were able to contain the fire, went inside and pulled the two people out of the house.

An RCMP officer attempted to resuscitate the woman as firefighters worked on the man.

"Chaos. There was half a dozen fire people and EMS guys around each of the people," said James Brinkschulte, the couple's next door neighbour.

"Apparently they couldn't do very much for the man that was there and they took the lady away in the ambulance."

The man died at the scene and the woman was pronounced dead by the time she was taken to hospital.

Brinkschulte said the woman was a retired teacher and the man was a retired school custodian. He said they kept to themselves and spent much of their time caring for their property.

"In a situation like this when a victim is removed from the building, the firefighters typically do everything they can to save a saveable life. At that point in time, their focus would have changed from extinguishing the fire to trying to save the victim," said Phil McNulty, a spokesman for Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency.

"In situations like this, things do get frantic. Minutes seem like hours, even to firefighters."

Two fire investigators were inside the home Thursday morning, trying to determine exactly what happened. They said they expect to know the cause of the fire by the end of the day.

RCMP said they don't believe the fire is suspicious. The identities of the victims have not been released.