Officials: Christmas Day Fire Claims One
Officials from the Sullivan County Coroner’s office arrive at a home on College Avenue and Weaver Pike in Bristol, Tenn., where police say someone inside the building died in a Christmas Day fire.
BRISTOL, Tenn. – A structure fire claimed the life of a bedridden 78-year-old man Thursday, authorities at the scene said.
Investigators declined to immediately identify the victim, who was the only reported casualty, and had yet to establish where and how the fire started at the white duplex on College Avenue.
The fire was reported at 4:53 p.m. and firefighters responded two minutes later. “Smoke was showing” when the first of three fire units arrived, said Jack Spurgeon, assistant chief fire marshal for the Bristol Tennessee Fire Department.
“They made entry to do a rescue,” but the man, who was bedridden, “wasn’t alive at the time they reached him,” Spurgeon said. The victim was the only occupant of the house at the time.
“At this point, I don’t see any criminal activity” involved with the blaze, Spurgeon said.
Across the street, Michael Owen was having dinner at his mother-in-law’s when he noticed smoke seeping out the front door of the victim’s house.
“It had an electrical smell about it,” Owen, a Bristol resident, said in an interview. “I could just see a bit of billow under the eaves.”
Owen felt the door and, finding it cold, eased it open. The smoke inside was “soot black” and 2 feet deep, he said. He called out to the victim, whom he did not know, but heard no response. He turned and called for his family members to dial 911.
“It was just too late at that point,” he said.
No fire damage to the duplex was visible on its exterior, and Spurgeon described the damage inside as “pretty minimal.” The fire was confined to the living room, he said.
Neighbors and family members, including the victim’s widow, gathered at a house across the street, but did not want to comment.
dgilbert@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2558
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