Investigators looking into Tuesday morning’s fire in West Odessa have determined the man who died in the fire was trying to commit suicide, said Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffis.
The sheriff’s office received a 911 call around 5:30 a.m. about an RV fire in the 4300 block of Flamingo and while Odessa Fire Rescue crews were extinguishing the blaze, they discovered a deceased man roughly 40 years of age inside the RV. A second man was taken to the hospital suffering from smoke inhalation and he was treated and released, Griffis said.
When sheriff’s office investigators and state fire marshals interviewed the second man, they learned he’d been staying in the RV in the backyard of his parents’ house and had invited the deceased man to stay with him.
The man told investigators the other man was suicidal and had started several small fires inside the RV using a handheld torch, Griffis said. The survivor tried to put out the fires with an extinguisher, but ultimately was unable to battle all of them and was forced to evacuate, he said.
Investigators were able to corroborate the man’s story and recovered the fire extinguisher, Griffis said.
The identity of the deceased man is still pending the autopsy, the sheriff said.
