Three People Found Dead in Texas Mobile Home

Aug. 14, 2014
A small fire smouldered, and released carbon monoxide, Klein Chief David Bessolo said.

Aug. 14--Authorities said three people were found dead Wednesday night inside a mobile home in north Harris County.

According to preliminary information, the bodies were discovered about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in a trailer along the 8500 block of Scotch Pine Place in Tomball.

David Bessolo, chief of the Klein Volunteer Fire Department, said a neighbor came to check on the people living in the trailer and spotted what appeared at first to be a cardiac arrest victim.

Officials called to the scene suspect a small fire smoldered inside the trailer, releasing clouds of poisonous carbon monoxide gas. The fire was found in a back bedroom, Bessolo said.

Bessolo said the high levels of carbon monoxide in the home "were seven times what we consider the 'danger zone,' " Bessolo said.

A sheriff's deputy said the first officers at the scene noticed a strong odor and backed away, fearing the trailer might be a drug lab. They called for a Harris County hazardous-materials team, which went in and determined that wasn't the case.

The firefighters found two men and a woman dead inside the trailer. A third man was taken to an area hospital and was in stable condition later Wednesday, Bessolo said.

The victims' identities have not been released.

The Harris County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating. Foul play is not thought to have played a part in the deaths, Harris County sheriff's officials said.

Neighbors said the people in the trailer have been in the community for about two or three years and generally kept to themselves. They didn't recall any past instances where police were at the scene.

Late Wednesday, firefighters were ventilating the trailer so the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office could conduct an investigation.

Copyright 2014 - Houston Chronicle

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