Cigarette lit near oxygen machine causes fatal fire
LAFAYETTE — Fire investigators said a 77-year-old Lafayette woman died from injuries suffered during an early Wednesday morning flash fire caused by the lighting of a cigarette near the woman’s oxygen machine.
The fire occurred at 2:36 a.m. at 99 Ambroise St. after the woman, identified as Geneive McZeal, lit a cigarette while wearing a nasal cannula supplied by an oxygen machine, Alton Trahan, spokesman for the Lafayette Fire Department, said in a news release.
“The flame ignited the oxygen from the cannula causing a flash fire,” Trahan said. “The cause of the fire was an accident.”
The victim’s husband, Ervin McZeal, was in a separate room at the time of the fire and escaped without injuries, Trahan said.
The city has had one or two small fires involving oxygen machines in the past, but “this is the first fatality in Lafayette like this that I know of,” Trahan said.