Posted on 08/25/2002 5:31:16 PM PDT by COB1
Did you find anything you can share?
Assuming he was drinking Red Dog, and assuming 12 ounce bottles, the Chief would have to sock away 8 of them in an hour, considering his 220lb body weight.
Not an easy feat, in my opinion, but doable, if one is accustomed to drinking like that.
I don't wanna knock the Chief.. in fact, I wanna help figure out this riddle. So I think back to my younger days when I could knock down a dozen in an hour or two... how drunk did I get? Not drunk enough to become so disoriented in a fire as to allow myself to burn or to not be able to escape it.
He was found in the bathroom, inches away from safety. I find that strange, and not explainable by his B/A level.
I'm not a medical examiner, so I can't ascertain from the ME's report, just how those peculiar burns on the genitalia came about, so I won't even speculate. But I do have some experience with intoxicated behavior... :)
Anyway, one scenario that comes to mind is him being in the den, or on the can, when the fire starts in the dining room. Seeing the flame, he instinctively tries to get to his wife to get her out, tries several times, gets burned pretty good, and retreats... but if he makes it to the bathroom, why can't he make the extra few steps required to get out of the house altogether? Is he too intoxicated to think clearly? does he pass out from shock and intoxication?
I don't think so... in my experience, emergency situations tend to have a rapid sobering effect... maybe not at a B/A level of .30, but at .18, an experienced drinker can keep his wits about him. I have, on many an occassion.
I'm sure that in that scenario, he would be able to retreat, leave through the garage, and make it around the outside of the house to the bedroom window to assist his Mrs. in getting out. This is a man we're talking about... not some whiney liberal snot nosed cry baby. If he had an ounce of life left, he's gonna get his wife out first and worry about dyin later...
Is he overcome by smoke in such a short time? I don't think that's the case either.. Not in a naturally aspirated wood fire... I'm sure it's documented somewhere, that smokers can withstand the lethal gasses of a fire more so than non smokers... I guess our bodies become accustomed to the intake of harmful gasses, and we acquire some form of resistence.
I have been in, and put out one housefire in my life and the smoke was a non factor except for the discomfort in the eyes. It was a desk that caught fire from a candle, and a lot of paper, plastic and wood was burning, and the smoke was extremely dense... I put it out using a plastic bathroom trash can and water from the bathtub... it took about 10 or 15 buckets to get it under control, so I was in that smoke for some time. It occured in a 2nd floor bedroom, and I didn't notice it until the smoke had already made it down to the 1st floor and into the sunken den at the end of the house, so you can imagine it was quite smokey up there.
Typically, there is nothing in a dining room that can generate so much heat and toxic smoke in such a short time as to be debilitating to a person so quickly. It's not a long, slow smouldering sofa fire in which the cushions produce intense levels of toxic gasses, and almost explode into a super hot fire ball... It's a wooden table and chairs...
It all tells me that foul play isn't just a possibility, it's not even a probability.. it's a definite. We can't give up on this... there's a killer lose...
I only wish I hadn't taken a leave of this place right around the time the Chief died... I hadn't heard that it was arson til just today.
Keep up the great work and thanks for being such a good friend to a great freeper!
No truer words have ever been spoken.
You're wrong, care.
I think about Herb EVERY single day!
I called the arson investigators on Monday and left messages.
I called them back on Tuesday and left messages.
I appear to have been shut out of this investigation.
The only news I have is from the Chief of Arson Investigations that this investigation is still open.
This is both good and bad, as we have discussed.
The video which the report says was taken at the house is now in question of ever existing.
As long as this investigation is still in progress, there's nothing I can do with the Attorney General.
I'm as frustrated as any one!
If anyone has any ideas about how to proceed, I would love to hear them.
Is is time for an all out e-mail blitz?
WHAT DO Y'ALL SAY??
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