An elderly man died from injuries suffered in a mobile home fire Saturday in the Sunnyside area, according to the Clark County Fire Marshal’s Office.
The family of Leslie Freimuth, age unknown, was notified of his death, Deputy Fire Marshal Rick Searlf said Monday.
Freimuth had been smoking while using an oxygen tank, Searlf said, which caused the fire.
“Oxygen is, obviously, an oxidizer, so it causes things to burn rapidly and hot. When you’re using a tank, your clothes and other materials are saturated, and things burn quickly,” the deputy fire marshal said.
The chain of events is unclear, Searlf said. The man’s clothes or his furniture may have caught on fire, he said.
The Vancouver Fire Department was dispatched shortly before 4 p.m. to Hillcrest Mobile Park at 10040 N.E. 72nd Ave., where they saw smoke coming from the front of a double-wide mobile home. A porch light was blinking on and off, indicating someone was inside, Vancouver firefighter-paramedic Bryan Fredrickson previously told The Columbian.
Firefighters found Freimuth unconscious at the back of the home, Fredrickson said. He was taken to the Legacy Oregon Burn Center at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland.
The fire was isolated to the one mobile home. Its interior was destroyed, Searlf said.
