Fire investigators are waiting for a final autopsy report to return before determining the official cause of a fire that killed a Winfield man early last month, Winfield fire marshal Alan Stoll said.
David C. Murphy, 54, wasn’t breathing when firefighters found him inside a small apartment fire March 6. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital a short time later.
Stoll said no evidence found at the scene would indicate the fire at 510 E. Fifth was anything other than accidental in nature. But Stoll said he’ll wait until every report is in before making a final determination.
Unofficially, investigators think a cigarette-smoking related accident may have started the fire. Murphy was in a room separate from where the fire started but the rooms were separated by open doorways.
It wouldn’t have taken much for a small fire to fill the first-floor apartment with smoke, Stoll has said previously.
