Suspected burglar stuck in Huron home’s chimney dies after residents light fire
Source: Fresnobee
man who apparently got stuck in the chimney of a Huron home during a botched burglary attempt died Saturday after the homeowners lit a fire in the fireplace, the Fresno County Sheriffs Office said.
Lt. Brandon Pursell said deputies received a 911 call to the 16000 block of West Gale Avenue just before 3 p.m. After lighting a fire, the male homeowner heard screaming coming from somewhere inside the house. When the resident realized a person was in the chimney, he extinguished the fire.
Deputies and firefighters had to smash the chimney to get the man out. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The Fresno County coroner will perform an autopsy to confirm a cause of death. The mans identity is being withheld pending notification of his family.
Investigators believe he had attempted to break into the home sometime during the evening hours of Nov. 27. He had remained in the chimney all day.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article46988790.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article46988790.html#storylink=cpy
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article46988790.html
demmiblue
(36,751 posts)PatrickforO
(14,516 posts)But it is a sad way to die. And very painful, which is not funny at all.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)Dumb crook, but I wouldn't wish that on Cheney.
catbyte
(34,174 posts)Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)Seriously?
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)I can't picture myself being a dumb crook, sure, but I can sure picture being stuck in that predicament, if I were dumb enough to get into it.
madinmaryland
(64,920 posts)Little Tich
(6,171 posts)reddread
(6,896 posts)the Wild Westside.
edgineered
(2,101 posts)It is understandable that people who know nothing about construction can think that a chimney is simply a large hollow shaft leading into a house. If more potential crooks knew that there were dampers on fireboxes and that flues may only be a few inches across, they may not kill themselves as often.
Rant off - ignore this reply. I know better.
LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)could do it so can they.
edgineered
(2,101 posts)While not shown in the various film versions of The Count of Monte Cristo, in the book Bertuccio, who pretended to be the Count of Cavalcanti, slid down the chimney into the hotel room that the daughters of Villeforts and Danglars had hidden in and commenced their love affair after the ruin of Danglars.
The affair between the daughters and the chimney drop made for two surprises. Dumas wrote the book in 1844. Surprise, surprise!
Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)edgineered
(2,101 posts)They have trouble with the part about how LE has all the cards, whereas they seem to think that their split second hare-brained plans turn them into super villians and master minds. Maybe its better to leave things alone.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Android3.14
(5,402 posts)Something is off with the homeowner's explanation.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Bernardo de La Paz
(48,789 posts)Pool Hall Ace
(5,849 posts)the way she said " . . . and LATER decided to call 911."
reddread
(6,896 posts)and a lot of other unsettling and unsavory things about Huron,
Seeking shelter from the cold might be a possibility. I dont think everyone thinks they can
be st nick.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)If you really believe in a whole family of sociopaths, okay, but it says more about you than the person who lit a fire in his fireplace with a ghastly result.
The would-be break-in artist had probably lost consciousness, and was hideously jolted back to awareness by pain.
Chimneys aren't designed for people to stay in there for hours breathing fresh air. He was slowly suffocating, I am sure. There are fine particulates and little air circulation with the damper closed.
Android3.14
(5,402 posts)It would be difficult to breathe and the scenario you described is reasonable, though the circumstances leading up to it are so obscure at this point.
That was an average chimney from the picture I saw, and the ones in this part of New England are too small for a man to crawl down. I doubt I could crawl down or up an average chimney when I was a teenager. If by some sequence of events a man ends up choking quietly in the fireplace chimney and someone then lights a wood fire, it is not that difficult to put out the fire with kitchen water or even hauling the wood out of the fireplace. Given the person clogging the chimney is so needy of oxygen that the thief is choking to death, it seems the system wouldn't vent worth beans, so how did they get a roaring fire going, and why didn't they put it out when they heard the guy screaming?
I'm not libeling anyone. I'm saying that the story sounds off. I'd ask more questions.
alfredo
(60,065 posts)He tried to enter through the grill exhaust, but got stuck. To make matters worse, someone left the grill on, and the poor sap was slow cooked to death. His tennis shoes melted.
It was an ex employee.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)except someone was stuck, but not cooked.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/10/01/body-missing-teen-found-chimney-years/73137192/
Human remains found in an abandoned cabin are those of a Colorado 18-year-old who went missing seven years ago, according to local officials.
Dental records confirmed that the remains were those of Joshua Vernon Maddux, who went missing in 2008, Teller County Coroner Al Born told AP.
Investigators think Maddux was likely trying to squeeze down the chimney when he became stuck, AP reported.
Chuck Murphy, the owner of the cabin, said the cabin was vacant for 10 years, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.
Murphy said he checked on the property periodically and that "it smelled bad," the Gazette reported.
The body was discovered on Aug. 7, when Murphy and a crew were tearing the cabin down to make way for a new development, the Gazette reported.
renate
(13,776 posts)An awful way to die, but it's also so sad for his family. I can't even begin to imagine what it'd be like to wonder what happened to an 18-year-old who'd been missing for seven years. How awful.
NickB79
(19,114 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]If you're not committed to anything, you're just taking up space.
Gregory Peck, Mirage (1965)[/center][/font][hr]
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)"Play stupid games...win stupid prizes."
Blandocyte
(1,231 posts)That will cut down on these tragedies.
Jimbo S
(2,955 posts)A few years back, a skeleton was found stuck in a chimney. A skeleton of a male. A skeleton of a male in women's clothes. Don't think this was ever solved.
Crabby Appleton
(5,231 posts)(CNN) -- The decomposed body of a California doctor was found lodged in her boyfriend's chimney, several days after she had apparently attempted to get inside his home, police said.
Internist Jacquelyn Kotarac, 49, had been reported missing on Thursday, Bakersfield, California, police said in a statement Tuesday. Her body was found lodged in the fireplace flue on Saturday.
Kotarac was last seen Wednesday night at about 10:15 p.m., "trying to force her way inside (the home) as she was involved in a dating relationship with the resident," police said. "The resident left the house undetected to avoid a confrontation and stayed the night elsewhere."
more at link..