CAPE HOUSE FIRE CLAIMS ONE

Though mostly confined to a wheelchair after suffering a stroke, Harold Gene Payne was able to get around short distances without it, his relatives said.

However, Payne, 55, was unable to escape his bedroom and died when fire engulfed his home at 333 N. Fountain St. Friday morning.

Robert Lee Payne, his brother and caretaker, suffered smoke inhalation and burns to his face and arms attempting a rescue.

"I tried to pull him out," Payne said just after escaping the blaze. "I tried to get him out, but I just couldn't."

Cape Girardeau County Coroner Mike Hurst said a preliminary examination of Harold Payne's body indicated he died of smoke inhalation. Robert Payne was taken to an unidentified hospital in St. Louis.

The house, which decades ago had been a neighborhood grocery store, was divided into two separate dwellings.

The Paynes lived in the lower level, where the fire began. Gene Parrow, a family friend, was at the house at the time and escaped injury.

Two sisters, Vanessa and Deanna Peterson, each of whom have a 2-year-old child, lived in the upper level. Both women and the children escaped uninjured.

Investigators with the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and the Missouri Division of Fire Safety spent several hours sifting through the remains of the house Friday afternoon. They determined the fire started on the Paynes' living room couch, likely from a cigarette, battalion chief Tom Hinkebein said.

Hinkebein said there were two working smoke detectors in the upper level, but none was found in the lower level.

Firefighters received the call at 11:45 a.m. By the time they arrived, the lower level was ablaze. The fire later spread to the upper level and roof. Firefighters extinguished the blaze approximately 30 minutes later.

Joel Niswonger, a maintenance worker for the house's owner, was installing a screen door at the back of the house when the fire started.

"I was working on the other side, and the next thing I know a guy comes running out of the front and I see all of this smoke, so I called the fire department," Niswonger said.

Niswonger helped evacuate the women and children from the upper level.

Steven Lee was visiting his mother at her home at 409 North Street, just west of where the fire occurred. He was spraying the burning house with a garden hose when firefighters arrived.

"At first we thought someone was burning brush, but then I looked up and saw fire coming out of a window," Lee said. "I grabbed a garden hose, but I didn't want to get too close because I was afraid it was going to blow."

Four fire engines and a number of support vehicles responded to the scene, including units of the Jackson Fire Department.

The house sustained an estimated $18,000 in damage and was a total loss.