A young boy was found dead by Magnolia firefighters, after a large house fire Dec. 8.
Fire officials identified the boy as Dakota Myers, 3, of Magnolia. He was found in a back bedroom of a travel trailer that had been converted into a permanent residence.
The fire started at the home on Todd Road, just after 1 a.m. Firefighters responded within minutes and tried to rescue the boy, but heavy fire conditions forced them out of the residence. Family members had also tried to rescue the boy, but were unable due to heavy smoke and fire.
The travel trailer had a wooden addition built onto it.
A 10-year-old boy and an adult were treated at the scene by Montgomery County Hospital District emergency workers for smoke inhalation.
“The first arriving Magnolia Fire Department units found that the fire had fully engulfed the travel trailer and addition built on to it,” a Montgomery County Fire Marshal press release stated. “The fire was so intense that no search was possible until it was brought under control.”
The 10-year-old boy was sleeping when the fire broke out. He told fire investigators that he woke up to find the fire in an area where Dakota Myers has been sleeping.
The boy’s mother stated that she was outside of her next door neighbor’s home with several other people when they saw the fire. Family members and neighbors ran to the home, but were unable to get inside. The 10-year-old boy was able to escape the home.
Fire officials said the investigations into the cause of the fire and Myers cause of death are still ongoing. They are awaiting additional test results.
They have yet to find evidence that the home was equipped with working smoke detectors.
“Each year approximately 3,000 lives are lost to fire in the United States with 85 percent of the deaths occurring in home fire,” fire officials stated. “The common theme in nearly all fatal fires is that they break out while the residents are asleep and there are no working smoke detectors.”
Although Montgomery County averages five to six fire deaths a year, this is the first fire fatality of 2012.
