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Dec. 04, 2007
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Man, woman seriously burned in fire

Cigarette sparks oxygen tank blaze; clothes melt to his body

By BRIAN HAYNES
REVIEW-JOURNAL

A man and woman were seriously burned Monday morning when the woman's cigarette sparked a fire with her oxygen tank, a spokesman for the Clark County Fire Department said.

The woman suffered burns to her face and the man suffered significant burns over a large part of his body in the blaze, which started about 6 a.m. in a house on the east side of the valley, Fire Department spokesman Scott Allison said. Both were taken to University Medical Center.

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    • Flames were shooting from the front door and window when firefighters pulled up to the house on the 3100 block of Palmdale Street, near Lamb Boulevard and Desert Inn Road. The house was filled with furniture and other belongings that fueled the flames, Allison said.

    Investigators believe the man, whose clothes melted to his body, was in another part of the house when the fire started and was burned either trying to put out the fire or was burned by a fireball from an exploding oxygen tank, Allison said.

    He went to a neighbor's house to get help.

    The neighbor has "known him for years, and he said the guy was so badly burned he didn't recognize him," Allison said.

    Investigators weren't sure how the woman got out of the house. She told firefighters she was smoking while taking oxygen when the fire started, he said.

    The fire was the third in two weeks involving cigarettes and oxygen tanks.

    In one of those cases, a man died Friday morning after his apartment on Charleston Boulevard near Interstate 15 was gutted by a fire.

    Firefighters put out heavy flames before finding the man's charred body in the bed of his studio apartment. The remains of an exploded oxygen tank were found on the bed, and nearby residents told investigators that the man had a history of smoking while using his oxygen, a fire official said.

    On Thanksgiving, firefighters responded to a fire caused by a person smoking near an oxygen tank on the city's east side.

    No one was seriously injured in that incident.

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    Phil wrote on December 26, 2007 12:20 PM: People have to be really heavily addicted to nicotine to take crazy chances like smoking around oxygen tanks. They ought to be making a New Year's resolution to quit smoking, or at least smoke outside. See the doctor and get a prescription for Chantix for god's sake!


    Herb wrote on December 04, 2007 04:11 PM: Smoking while hooked up to an oxygen tank is part of Las vegas culture! I see it all the time here, never when I travel out of state.


    upinsmoke wrote on December 04, 2007 08:33 AM: opps typo-oxegen should be oxygen sorry


    upinsmoke wrote on December 04, 2007 08:32 AM: How many people with oxegen tanks come in and sit in the casino's and are smoking and the people around them are smoking. I smoke and even I know oxegen and smoking don't go together. The casino's should ban people with oxygen tanks to only be in the non-smoking areas including resturants, bingo rooms etc.. for public safety.


    kloote wrote on December 04, 2007 08:19 AM: Two fires in a week caused by smoking with live oxygen tanks in the room. It said on the TV that this lady was in her sixties. You have to wonder how someone so stupid managed to live that long.