The Monday morning house fire that fatally injured a Fulton man has been ruled accidental, Fulton Fire Chief Kevin Coffelt said.
"Everything was ruled out with the exception of an overloaded electrical outlet," Coffelt said in an update emailed Thursday.
James Morrison, the 68-year-old who was inside the home during the blaze, later died at the Callaway Community Hospital (formerly the Fulton Medical Center).
At 2:38 a.m. Monday, the Fulton Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 832 Green St. in Fulton. When the first fire engine company arrived, they saw smoke emerging from a single-story duplex, according to a news release from the Fulton Fire Department.
Crews immediately deployed hoses and entered the structure to fight the fire and search for victims. Within minutes, they located and evacuated Morrison, who had received serious and life-threatening injuries.
A second search of the apartment found one deceased cat but no additional human victims. Fire crews located the room containing the fire and extinguished it rapidly. Damages to the structure are estimated at $40,000.