Jan. 06--The names of four people who died in a house fire early Saturday morning have been released by local authorities.
Kevin Michael Lomax, 19, Destiny Jo Daugherty, 18, Jeremy Wayne Blair, 38, and Shelby Renea Sanders, 23, died of apparent smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at a residence located in the 300 block of North Sunset Boulevard around 4:55 a.m. Saturday.
The identity of a fifth victim, reportedly a 17-year-old, had not been released as of press time Monday.
According to BPD officials, the apparent cause of death for all five is smoke inhalation. The victims were found dead in the home after the fire had been extinguished by the Bartlesville Fire Department on Saturday. According to police reports, a sixth person, Dakota "Cody" Jackson, 19, was also inside the home when the fire started but was able to escape. There were two other people on the property who were not inside the home at the time of the fire, according to the report.
"I woke up to screaming, smoke and screaming," Jackson told the Tulsa World in a video released on its website Sunday. "They told me they couldn't get out and I opened up the kitchen door, it was right there by my room, I opened it up and there were flames, flames, and I almost died from heat exhaustion."
Jackson said in the video that he left the house and ran.
"I had to go get help. I didn't know I had my phone on me. That's the line of evidence," he said, holding up his hand indicating that an injury had left blood at the scene after he reportedly punched out a window to get out of the burning home. "I ran down the road to get help and I passed out in a ditch down the road with my shirt wrapped around my head."
Jackson, getting emotional, said that all of the other people in the home died.
"They all panicked. They all didn't think like I did. I got oxygen on the ground, I went to the ground and got oxygen. And then I punched the window out and got out of the window. Nobody else thought. They all panicked," he told the Tulsa World.
When contacted Monday, police declined to comment further on the matter.
The fire investigation is ongoing and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, BFD Assistant Chief Bill Hollander said Monday.
Hollander said lead investigator Jerry Berry will continue working with BPD detectives on the case, and that investigators will review photos from the scene and continue conducting interviews.
"(They will) sit down, figure out where we're at and move forward, towards getting the cause of this fire solved," Hollander said.
Hollander said investigations of this magnitude can to take up to months to conclude.
"When there's not an immediate 'ah-ha, this is it' cause, then it can take several weeks to a couple months waiting on samples, analyses. Hopefully that won't be the case for this fire," Hollander said. "We're just working together to get a resolution to this case and hopefully we'll have some answers sooner rather than later."
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