Elderly couple dies after using grill to keep warm

[TexasStooge]

By JOHN PRONK / WFAA ABC 8

FORT WORTH, Texas - Authorities said an elderly couple died after a fire started after using a grill to keep warm in a southeast Fort Worth home in the 3600 block of Hatcher Street.

The couple, who had just moved in the area, and their dog passed away after their home caught ablaze.

"They were a lovely couple," said neighbor Cynthia Wilson. "[They] had been living here less than two weeks."

While they hadn't lived there long, many in the close knit neighborhood had already made friends with the couple.

"They introduced themselves to the neighbors," said neighbor Terry Bates. "They were Godly people."

Kent Worley of the Fort Worth Fire Department said the two appeared to be attempting to keep themselves warm by using a barbecue grill in their bedroom.

"It somehow got dumped over and that's how the fire started," Worley said.

The fire cause little structural damage and was quickly extinguished by firefighters.

"This is the second and third fire death of the year," Worley said. "It's tragic, and seeing what caused this makes it even more tragic."

Elliot Hall, who owns the house, said the couple began staying there after he offered them the place when he met them a few weeks ago.

"They were living in a house with no heat and so I learned about it and I told them I had a house [and] they could move into my house," he said.

The medical examiner will determine the cause of death, but said the barbecue grill could have given off deadly carbon monoxide gas.

"There is a thought that by using the grill it would make people disoriented," Worley said. "We believe one of them might have knocked over the grill and the fire started in the house."

Many of the friends the family had made in their short time in the neighborhood said they had been touched by the couple and were saddened by their death.

"It's very sad, very said" Bates said. "I know God knows why. He knows why. They touched everybody. They were great people."

[richtrav]

Oh! Bad memories! We were forced to do that back in 1989 in San Antonio. The old diesel tank quit working in the middle of that night the temperature dropped to 6F, so we had to switch to electric heaters. That worked OK until we started getting rolling blackouts around town the next day, so the BBQ grill was the only source of heat we had for several hours. That was a MISERABLE freeze, hopefully we'll never have to go through something that bad again. Why some people on this board actually WISH for that kind of weather is completely beyond me

[Aslkahuna]

One would think that one would rather be cold than DEAD-using a BBQ grill inside a house to keep warm falls into the stupid category. Sorry to be blunt but that's the bottom line. If it gets too cold in the house seek out a homeless shelter if you can't afford a motel room.

Steve

[JQ Public]

it is a very common occurrence in the south, people just don't understand the danger until they're house catches on fire or they die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

[richtrav]

Well if shelters or hotels don't have power either what's the point? We had ours on kind of an enclosed patio, it was as much to keep the plants from freezing as anything, not like it was in the middle of the living room, though we did have the door open from the patio into the kitchen. Hmm, carbon monoxide, how dangerous are those lamp-looking propane heaters that you see at Home Depot? I see people often using them on patios, sometimes without the best circulation.