SAILER KILLED IN CAR FIRE

A Navy sailor died of burns he suffered when the parked car he was in caught fire Thursday morning in the first block of North Main Street.

Seaman Mark Singleton, 20, of Great Lakes, Ill., died at 1:47 p.m. Thursday at St. John Mercy Medical Center in Creve Couer, said Cape Girardeau County Coroner John Carpenter. Singleton would have been 21 on Saturday.

Carpenter said Singleton was intoxicated, a condition that may have caused him to pull to the curb and park the car. He did not turn off the ignition or lights, said the coroner.

The fire is believed to have started near the muffler, which was near the gas line at the rear of the car, a 1986 Ford Escort owned by Singleton's mother, Judith Singleton, of 821 Jefferson.

A security guard discovered the car fully involved in flames and smoke in front of 45 N. Main at about 4:15 a.m., and called firefighters. When the fire department was called, there was no indication anyone was in the car because of heavy smoke and flames.

When fire department Lt. Paul Breitenstein opened the driver's side door to unlock the hood of the car, he discovered Singleton in the front seat, unconscious with labored breathing and wearing his seat belt.

Breitenstein, fire department paramedic Bill Crump and EMT Earl Lynn pulled Singleton from the car and began emergency treatment. He was treated by ambulance paramedics and transported to Southeast Missouri Hospital by the Cape County Private Ambulance Service.

He then was transferred by Life Beat air ambulance to the St. John Burn Center. Singleton had been in critical condition with second- and third-degree burns over the upper part of his body when he was transferred to St. John Thursday morning.

The coroner said preliminary tests showed Singleton's blood-alcohol level was over twice the legal limit of .10 percent.

"It appears because of the victim's intoxicated condition that he either passed out or went to sleep, and was unable to unbuckle his seat belt and open the door to get out of the car when it caught fire," Carpenter said.

Carpenter said his office is conducting an investigation. He asked that anyone with knowledge of Singleton's activities prior to the fire contact the coroner's office at 335-3223.

Police said Singleton had just graduated from basic training at the Navy's Great Lakes Naval Training Center and was on a 90-day temporary duty assignment with the local Navy recruiting office in Cape Girardeau.

Because the car was parked at the curb, Singleton's death will not be listed as the result of a vehicle accident. Police said if it had stopped in the street, roadside, or anywhere else except a parking space, it would have been considered an vehicle death. Instead, the death is recorded as being caused by accidental fire, police said.

Fire Chief Gene Hindman said the death is the first fire death to occur in a parked vehicle in the city. "We've had fire deaths in homes and mobile homes, but never in a parked car that I can think of," he said.

The death is the first from fire in Cape Girardeau since March 9, 1991, when three teenage girls died as a result of a residential fire at 731 N. Spanish.