ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310059
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER and DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITERS
David Hurt was looking forward to Halloween. The 60-year-old Southeast Roanoke man had decorated his front porch and bought candy for trick-or-treaters, and on Wednesday he asked a neighbor to buy him a candle for his pumpkin.
When the neighbor, Mike Foster, returned 40 minutes later, Hurt's Garden City Boulevard home was on fire and Hurt was dead.
"It was right bad, blowing out the front," Foster said. "I could see it down the street."
Firefighters found Hurt on the kitchen floor near his refrigerator and a window. Foster said Hurt had almost reached the back door.
He apparently was overcome by smoke, District Fire Chief Thomas Tyree said.
The cause of the fire has not been determined, but Hurt probably was smoking in the living room, nodded off to sleep, then dropped his cigarette onto the sofa, the chief said.
When Hurt awoke, the front door likely was blocked by flames and heavy smoke, Tyree said, so Hurt made his way through a small dining room and into the kitchen. The house had no smoke detector.
Mike Andrews, who lives two doors down from Hurt, was raking leaves when the fire started.
"I just heard some popping," Andrews said. By the time he walked over to the house, it "was engulfed in flames. It heated up my whole face to look at it."
Andrews untied Hurt's dog from the front porch and then, along with several others, banged on Hurt's windows. One man kicked in the back door, but he could not see anything because of the smoke.
Neighbors at the scene described Hurt as a small, slim man, about 5-foot-7. He celebrated his birthday just 10 days ago.
Foster lived next to Hurt in the 3400 block of Garden City Boulevard for three years and often took him to the grocery store.
He said Hurt, who was retired from the Army, would call to him from his front porch. He loved to tell war stories.
"I'll miss seeing him sitting on the porch and him hollering at me," Foster said. "He was a good man."
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB