A 37-year-old man died and a woman was hospitalized after a house fire reported Monday evening on the west side of Seymour.
Nicholas East died after being pulled from inside an attached garage at the home at 316 Kessler Blvd. by Seymour Police Department Officer Ben Miller, Cpl. Devin Cornwell said.
Cornwell said he, Miller and Officer Devlin McMindes had to force open the garage door enough to allow Miller to crawl inside to get the man out.
“The garage was full of smoke,” Cornwell said of the fire.
He said a woman, since identified as 37-year-old Crystal Beem, came out the front door of the house when Ryan Cherry, the first officer on the scene, arrived at about 6:15 p.m. Monday.
“She told him (Cherry) that he was out back,” Cornwell said of the man who died.
Beem was treated for smoke inhalation at the scene by medical personnel with Jackson County Emergency Medical Services and taken to Schneck Medical Center in Seymour for treatment and later was released, Police Chief Bill Abbott said Tuesday morning.
Abbott said the cause of the fire and East’s death remain under investigation.
“We’re waiting on the state fire marshal’s report,” he said, adding that detectives continue to explore several other issues.
Abbott said police were called to the house about a month ago on an unrelated issue.
“It had nothing to do with the fire,” he said.
Seymour Fire Chief Brad Lucas said the state fire marshal was on the scene until about midnight Monday, and investigators were able to determine the fire started in a bedroom on the north side of the wood-frame home.
Battalion Chief John Thomas said when firefighters arrived smoke and fire were coming out of the north side of the house, making it to hard to get inside. Efforts to get in through the the south and east sides of the one-story, wood frame home also failed, he said.
So firefighters opted to try to knock down the fire from outside, which took about 30 minutes, Thomas said.
Firefighters then checked the house for any other possible victims and found no one, Thomas said.
Detectives were called to the scene along with the Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office.
