JACKSON MAN DIES IN BLAZE

Cape Girardeau firefighter Fred Vincel reported to fire command from the second floor of an apartment building that burned in Jackson Thursday morning.

JACKSON -- Ten hours after the call arrived at Jackson Fire Department, Fire Chief Brad Golden and Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter offered some answers about a fatal fire that destroyed a Jackson apartment building Thursday.

James Pack, 31, of Jackson died in the fire, which investigators think started in his apartment.

"We do not suspect foul play," Golden said.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Carpenter said the apparent cause of death was smoke inhalation. "It appears to have been an accident," he said.

Funeral arrangements for Pack are incomplete at C.Z. Boyer & Son Inc. in Bonne Terre.

The fire at 705 Old Cape Road was first reported at 5:55 a.m. by a 911 call from Lynda Cunningham, an apartment tenant, who then awoke neighbors living in the building.

Within minutes, firefighters were on the scene, and everyone except Pack had escaped the building. Flames were shooting out of the roof of the building higher than trees that shade the yard.

"We made two entry attempts," then the ceiling started to collapse, Golden said. "We switched to a defensive mode," said the chief.

It took firefighters about an hour and a half to bring the flames under control. Firefighters continued to pour water on the building late into the afternoon.

At the height of the blaze, fire departments from Millersville, Delta, Gordonville, Fruitland and Cape Girardeau assisted the Jackson Fire Department.

Investigators from the state fire marshal's office and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms helped sort out details. Detectives from local law enforcement agencies interviewed neighbors in hopes of determining what happened.

Firefighters went through the building searching for hidden hot spots that could ignite. "We are going through every inch of the building by hand," Golden said.

Evidence that a person had died was discovered about 11 a.m. However, the body wasn't removed until nearly 3 p.m. Pack was identified a short time later by the coroner.

A canine unit from St. Louis was called in. Fire investigator John Raines and Wendy, a 5-year-old yellow Labrador, searched the building for evidence of an accelerant. The dog is trained to sniff out 25 different chemicals that could be used in starting or spreading a fire.

Raines and the dog spent about a half hour searching the house.

"If she finds something, we have to find out what it is and if it was supposed to be there," Raines said.

Raines and Wendy work for St. Louis County police and ATF. They are called to investigate fatal fires and fires that result in a large loss of property. Raines and Wendy recently assisted in the investigation of a fire at Riggs in Sikeston.

Dogs can detect odors that even laboratory equipment can't find.

"Even if they feel the fire is accidental, they call us in to rule out accelerants," Raines said.

Each apartment unit had a smoke detector. However, the detectors didn't sound until after people were leaving the building.

On Wednesday, Pack had received an eviction notice from the owner of the building, Walter Wright.

Wright, who was at the fire scene Thursday, said Pack hadn't paid rent for six months. Wright initiated eviction proceedings, then Pack sent a partial rent check of $400. The check was sent before he received the eviction notice.

"He was mad," Cunningham said. "We knew he was angry about the eviction."

Pack was a cigarette smoker.

For a time, investigators and neighbors worried that Pack's young son might have been in the apartment. The boy stays with him some days during the week. Pack's car, parked next to the apartment building, had a child safety seat strapped in the front seat.

But investigators soon located the child safe at his grandmother's home.

"I feel sorry for that boy," said Lisa Smothers, who lived downstairs in the apartment building. "I saw him here just the other day. James was teaching him to fish. He'll have to grow up without his daddy."

Pack worked at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Jackson for a number of years.

Robert and Nellie Green, neighbors from down the road, walked up to the fire scene late Thursday afternoon to see the damage.

They have lived in the neighborhood since 1945 and recalled that the building burned once before in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

"It burned the third story," Robert Green said. "The fire was up in the attic, but they caught it in time. They just took the top story off."

"It was beautiful inside, with two staircases leading upstairs and a great big living room," Nellie Green said. "But there have been a lot of changes over the years."