Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Copyright 2007 Little Rock Newspapers, Inc.
PARAGOULD, Ark. — A 17-month-old boy died Monday morning in a house fire sparked by a faulty heater, authorities said.
Deamon Raphael Bailey was found dead in a small bed where he had been sleeping, Greene County Coroner Dick Pace said. The body was sent to the state Crime Laboratory.
The fire began at 1:25 a.m. in the residence at 1367 Greene County Road 915, Sheriff Dan Langston said in a news release. Investigators found an electric heater plugged into an extension cord in the corner of Deamon’s bedroom.
Lessie Simpson, the boy’s mother, told authorities that she awoke to heavy smoke and ran into another room to alert other family members. She told police that she could not save her child because the fire was too hot, Langston said in the news release.
Danny Rice, the boy’s father, reportedly went outside and broke a bedroom window in an attempt to rescue Deamon, but could not. Rice used a garden hose to try to extinguish the fire while waiting for volunteers from the Southern Greene County Fire Department to arrive, the sheriff said.