One man is in intensive care and a second died Monday inside a house where propane heaters and a generator had been in use. The home had been “placard a nuisance” by city officials and no one was supposed to be living inside.
Authorities say an unconscious Jason Freeman was pulled from a Valley Street home by Poplar Bluff police officer(s) and emergency-medical-services personnel.
Freeman initially was taken by ambulance to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center for treatment and later transferred to NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Freeman is an intensive care unit, and his condition is not known at this time.
Jeremy Whetstien, 46, was pronounced dead at 421 Valley St. by Butler County Coroner Andy Moore.
Whetstein’s cause of death, Moore said, is carbon monoxide poisoning. No autopsy is planned.
Poplar Bluff firefighters were called to the Valley Street home, owned by Chester Pumphrey, at 11:12 a.m. to a report of a gas leak, acting battalion chief Jeff Hale wrote in his report.
En route, Hale said, firefighters were told to “expedite” as one person had been removed from the home and another was still inside.
Upon arrival, Hale said, firefighters donned their self-contained breathing apparatuses and entered the home to search for the second victim.
Whetstien reportedly was found in a back bedroom of the home.
“Inside the building were several propane bottles for heating, two propane heaters and a generator,” Hale said. “All utilities were shut off to the structure.”
Hale said firefighters took air readings and found 150 ppm (parts per million) of carbon monoxide in the house. Ventilation was set up.
Gas company personnel also responded to the home, where they detected “a high level of carbon monoxide in the house,” said Mike Moffitt, interim fire chief.
“Nothing was running” at that time, Moffitt said.
Both Whetstien and Freeman, he said, were found unconscious.
“There was two ladies that were friends of (the men),” Moffitt said. “They had stopped by to see them and found them like that, and they called” authorities.
Moffitt said the women reported to a Poplar Bluff police detective they had last “communicated with the gentlemen at midnight the night before. It had been about 11 hours.”
Moffitt described the home as a single-story home, approximately 600 square feet in size
“It appeared that these two gentlemen were living in the house and working, trying to remodel it,” Moffitt said.
City Building Inspector Tony Chilton said the home had not been condemned, but was “placarded a nuisance.”
Had the home been condemned, Chilton said, it would have had to be torn down. As a nuisance, he said, repairs could be made.
“They can work on it during the daytime hours, but can’t be there at night and can’t live there,” Chilton said.
The home had no utilities, but an electrical permit had been pulled about a month ago by a licensed master electrician, Chilton said.
The electrical work had been done by a licensed electrician, but the power had not been turned on, said Chilton, who indicated the deposit had not been paid for the electricity.
No other permits had been sought, Chilton said.
“They probably should have had a remodel permit, but they did not,” Chilton said.
Attempts to reach Pumphrey by press time were unsuccessful.