A Baertown man is dead after his home caught fire this morning.
Firefighters responded to a home at 1017 Peoples St. in McComb around 3:40 a.m., where they found Albert Winding, 57, dead in the kitchen.
Fire Chief Stephen Adams said a mobile home that was added on to the house was already a total loss by the time firefighters arrived.
Fire investigators, including a state fire marshal, were still sifting through debris in the home this morning, but Adams said it appears the fire may have started in a bedroom.
“That’s why we investigate and determine all the parts we can,” he said. “They have to dig through the pieces of this stuff to try to find wiring and other things. You would be surprised what they can put back together.”
Firefighters said no one else was at the house during the fire and Winding lived alone.
Craft Funeral Home of McComb is in charge of funeral arrangements, which are incomplete.
Adams said when the weather turns cool, firefighters recommend people take preventative action before they are faced with a similar situation.
“If they have chimneys and use them, be sure to clean them,” he said. “Always check smoke detectors.”
Adams said based on initial findings and statements from family members, it’s likely Winding did not have a smoke detector in his home.
“Smoke alarms are cheap. Some you don’t have to change the batteries for 10 years,” he said. “But they save lives. That’s been proven over and over again.”
Adams also urges residents to be sure they don’t overload circuit boards — something that can be easy to do when using space heaters.
“We see a lot of problems in older houses with overloaded circuits,” he said. “A lot of those houses don’t have that many receptors and space heaters use a lot of amperage charge.”
A common problem noticed by firefighters is that people tend to fill up power strips, which may not cause a problem with small electronics, but can turn deadly when combined with appliances that pull excessive energy, Adams said.
“They may have been fine all summer with cell phone charges, but you start plugging in space heaters and it draws a lot more amperage,” he said.
