MILTON, Mass. (AP) — Fire officials say a space heater is to blame for a house fire that killed two men in Milton.
A prominent 91-year old Boston developer and his 87-year-old father-in-law died in the early Monday morning blaze. Kenneth Guscott, a developer and former NAACP chapter president, and Leroy Whitmore, had been sleeping in second floor bedrooms.
The Massachusetts Fire Marshal’s office said Tuesday that an oil-filled space heater being used in one of the bedrooms appears to have overloaded an extension cord and caused an electrical fire. The office said the house had working smoke alarms and two other family members were able to escape.
The fire marshal’s office says space heaters caused nine deaths in Massachusetts between 2006 and 2015. The district attorney’s office said Monday’s deaths don’t appear suspicious.
Officials: double fatal Milton fire yesterday was caused by a space heater overloading an electrical cord #7News pic.twitter.com/9iycJazhPD
— Steve Cooper (@scooperon7) March 7, 2017
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