The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

March 11, 2008

<img src="http://www.joplinglobeonline.com/images/zope/policeandfire.gif" border=0 > Authorities look for cause of fire in which boy died


JAY, Okla. — A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal’s Office said there were no working smoke detectors inside a mobile home in Delaware County that caught fire Monday morning, claiming the life of a 4-year-old boy.

The fire broke out at 8:30 a.m. in a bedroom of the Jackson Brewer family’s home, one mile off U.S. Highway 59 on Highway 127 near Jay, according to JoAnne Sellars, operations chief for the fire marshal’s office.

Brewer’s wife, Misty Brewer, and three of their children were asleep at the time, Sellars said. Someone who noticed smoke coming from the house alerted the mother and helped her get two of her children, a baby and a 2-year-old girl, out of the home.

But, 4-year-old Matthew Brewer, who was sleeping in a separate part of the house from where the mother and the other two children were sleeping, could not be reached by the mother or the family’s rescuer, and he perished in the fire, Sellars said. She said the fire started in a child’s bedroom, but the boy’s body was found in another room.

Sellars said the cause of the fire had yet to be determined Tuesday.

“But it does not appear suspicious,” she said.