Feb. 08--CANTON -- A 64-year-old man was found dead in his burned out home after running inside to rescue the family's three pet dogs.
Sherwood Campbell had run out of the house at about 5 p.m. to alert neighbors to the fire, then ran back inside.
"They tried to prevent him from doing so, but he bolted from them," said Department of Public Safety spokesman Steve McCausland. "He was last seen near a second-floor window."
"Another problem with Sherwood, he was a very large man and could not fit through the window of the second floor," McCausland said. "There was no way he could have gotten out that window."
Campbell was found in a second-floor bedroom. His body will be examined today to determine what killed him, but the most common cause of death in fires is smoke inhalation, McCausland said.
The dogs also perished in the fire.
The fire started in the kitchen and investigators with the state Fire Marshal's Office plan to return to the burned out house today to try to determine a precise cause. The fire spread quickly because of a large number of combustible items that filled much of the house, McCausland said.
"The lesson here is even though you may have pets or whatever in there, once you have gotten out of the burning house, you never go back in," McCausland said. "In the time span that it has taken to report it, that fire has had a chance to multiply several times. Although our pets are important to all of us, our lives are more important."
Campbell lived with his elderly parents, but they were not home at the time. His father was in the hospital with a medical condition and his mother was visiting him, McCausland said.
Copyright 2012 - Portland Press Herald, Maine
