By Austin L. Miller
SEPTEMBER 17, 2018
Report states that “decedent was probably using either oxygen or using an oxygen generator at the time of the fire.”
OCALA, FLORIDA–
State and local law enforcement officials have determined that the death of a man in a July mobile home fire was not suspicious in nature.
Marion County Fire Rescue firefighters were called at 4:20 p.m. July 10 and arrived within five minutes. The fire was extinguished at 4:45 p.m. The fire destroyed the single-wide mobile home at the Oakcrest Mobile Home Park at 900 NE 31st St. After putting out the blaze, firefighters found the body of John Joseph O’Brien, 60.
Officials said O’Brien had an oxygen tank and was a smoker. Several people were unsuccessful in trying to rescue O’Brien, who was wheelchair-bound.
An investigator with the Bureau of Fire, Arson and Explosives noted in the final report that the point of origin of the fire was in a reclining chair in the living area.
“Weather did not contribute to the fire. The origin of the fire is the southern half of the structure. The decedent was probably using either oxygen or using an oxygen generator at the time of the fire,” wrote bureau investigator Thomas Hall in the report. “There were no observed criminal activities during the investigation of the fire.”
State officials said that, with assistance of their arson dog Fresca, they examined the outside and inside of the approximately 800-square-foot home. The dog did not alert to anything unusual.
Officials from the Medical Examiner’s Office, which determined the cause and manner of O’Brien’s death, said he died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the manner was natural.
Marion County Sheriff’s Office Detective Damon Baxley interviewed O’Brien’s wife, Angela O’Brien, who told him that her husband had “numerous health problems.” She said he used oxygen in the home, including while he was smoking.
On July 10, she said, she left the home around 3:30 p.m. to pick up their roommate from work. On the way home, they stopped at a store to purchase cigarettes and beer. She said they saw smoke coming from the direction of the home while at the nearby store. She said they rushed home and saw the home engulfed in flames. They tried to go inside but could not because of the flames.
Russell Cooper, the couple’s roommate, told the detective that when he was picked up from work, they talked with John O’Brien on the phone. He said both he and O’Brien’s wife warned him not to smoke and use his oxygen at the same time. Cooper said O’Brien did not think the oxygen was flammable.
A neighbor told Baxley about hearing four loud booms and then seeing flames coming from the mobile home.
In an interview on Tuesday, Angela O’Brien described her husband as a “good person, who would give his shirt off his back to anyone.” She said she has seen him “do it many times.”
She said her husband was born in Toledo, Ohio and they had been together for 19 years. She said they did not have any children together but that she had adopted a boy who is now 7-years-old.
O’Brien said her husband “has been my rock.”
She said she has been staying with a friend and has just been trying to cope with his death.
“I’m not doing too well. Whenever I go out, I see him,” she said about places they used to visit together.