Ammo, Oxygen Send Miss. Firefighters into Defensive Mode

Jan. 4, 2015
A 71-year-old man was killed in the blaze in Moss Point.

MOSS POINT -- Jackson County Deputy Coroner Jason Moody confirmed Pol Frederic, 71, died in a house fire on Riverwood Drive just after 12:30 a.m. Saturday.

Moss Point Fire Chief Tommy Posey said firefighters arrived six minutes after getting the call, and found the home fully engulfed. A motor home parked in the home's driveway was not burned, and its occupants were unharmed.

Frederic and his wife, Catherine, were inside when the house ignited. She was able to escape without injury, but her husband could not, Posey said.

Battalion Chief Mark Condreay said Catherine Frederic heard her husband screaming while she was upstairs, and when she found him, his shirt was ablaze.

"She tried to douse the flames with water from the kitchen," Condreay said. "After that didn't work, she ran outside to get help."

When she tried to reenter the house, smoke was too thick and the fire was too severe, Condreay said.

Authorities said the fire originated in Pol Frederic's downstairs bedroom, where he had an oxygen machine.

Condreay said he believes oxygen tanks in the room acted as a catalyst for the fire.

"When responders got to the house, they had to go into defense mode," he said. "Ammunition and oxygen tanks were going off all through Frederic's bedroom."

Ed Cooper, who has lived next to Pol Frederic for more than 15 years, said he was awakened by his wife, who heard the screams.

"We could hear the wife yelling in the front yard trying to get the family out of the motor home in front of the house," Cooper said. "My wife called 911 as soon as she could, but (the house) was too far gone."

Seeing the flames advancing through his neighbor's home, Cooper ran to the back of his house to grab a hose. But the fire had spread too quickly.

"The entire upstairs is gutted," he said. "The fire was moving so fast no one could do anything."

Cooper said when he first woke up, he thought a dense fog had covered the area.

"The smoke was so thick, so quick," he said. "I've never seen anything like it."

Firefighters worked six hours to put out the fire at the two-story home.

"There was a lot of structural problems the responders had to deal with," Posey said.

The investigation into what started the fire is in progress.

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©2015 The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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