Young Boy Dies in Marion County Fire
A young boy lost his life in an early morning house fire.
Twelve year old Jacob Watts was apparently trapped in the basement.
The fire broke out around 5 a.m. at 200 Judy Drive in Kimball.
It spread quickly to the entire house.
SGT. CHRIS WEBB, KIMBALL POLICE DEPT. "One end of the house when we arrived was completely engulfed…pretty muich everything was on fire ..but one end was completely engulfed."
Inside were 6 members of a family…three of them were children.
Five of them got out, including a woman who was badly burned and is now in an Atlanta burn hospital.
The body of a young boy was found in the basement.
SGT. CHRIS WEBB "He was actually upstairs when the fire started…one of the adults was downstairs."
There are many unanswered questions about the fire. Sheriff Bo Burnett called in the state bomb and arson team..although he says there’s nothing to indicate foul play.
SHERIFF "BO" BURNETT "The state people have more training on these situations….any time there’s a death we ask them to come in and take over the scene. They’re always good to help us..I think they’ve got four agents here today."
The agents were taking samples and looking for the cause.
The family dog was take to an animal shelter.
The Sheriff says the tragedy can be used as a reminder to others during the holidays.
SHERIFF BURNETT "Everybody has lights and different more things in the house right now..so be dilligenty and maybe walk thriough your house …we don’t want anything like this to happen again after today…we want everybody to be safe."
Another family member was also taken for treatment, and later released.
The names of those other victims have not been announced.
Sheriff Burnett tells News 12 that students at Jasper Middle school, where Jacob attended, were called to an assembly this afternoon and told of the tragedy.
Leave a Reply