Update: Second person dies following Friday house fire in Boise
Updated Sunday, Jan. 17 at 3:12 p.m.
A second person has died of injuries sustained in a Boise house fire Friday morning, according to a Sunday news release from the Boise Fire Department.
An adult woman, whose name has not been released, died at a local hospital, officials said. They did not say when the woman died. An adult man was also killed in the fire, as were two pets. Two other people were injured.
Boise Fire said Friday that the fire was accidental. The fire started in the living room, the release said, and was ignited by smoking materials. The presence of medical oxygen “exasperated” the blaze, BFD said.
Also, the release Friday evening clarified that no working smoke detectors were found in the home.
The Boise Fire Department said it wants to remind residents never to smoke where medical oxygen is used because it can cause materials to ignite more easily and make fires burn at a faster rate.
Below is the original story:
An early-morning fire in Boise left one man and two pets dead, and injured three others, including two firefighters, according to the Boise Fire Department.
Just before 4 a.m. Friday, fire crews were dispatched to a home in the 2800 block of West Lemhi Street and found heavy fire inside the building, according to a tweet from the Boise Fire Department. Firefighters found one resident of the home was able to escape; they went inside to rescue a second person.
Ada County paramedics rushed the two residents to the hospital. At the time of the tweet, the department did not say what condition the two were in. However, a Friday afternoon news release revealed that one man later died from his injuries. The blaze also claimed the lives of a cat and a dog in the home.
The identity of the man will be released by the Ada County Coroner’s Office.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries while fighting the blaze, according to the department.
Crews were able to control the fire in about 40 minutes, according to a news release. The fire spread through the main floor of the house and into areas of the roof that were difficult to reach.
Investigators said there was a “large amount of debris inside the home,” and multiple oxygen tanks caused small explosions while the fire spread. Smoke detectors were present, according to BFD.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the department.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 10:37 AM.
