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On Saturday, December 17, 2016 – just a week before Christmas – an elderly couple in Utah was pronounced dead in the space of their own home.
The lights on their Christmas tree had sparked and caused the tree to set on fire.
Gary Mecham, 77, and his wife, Melba Mecham, 74, had been found in their hallway. The local fire chief believes that the couple had been trying to escape the fumes of smoke, but “the smoke became so great that it rendered them unconscious…they couldn’t make it out.”
Fire officials immediately began to administer CPR on the couple before transporting them to the nearest hospital.
In spite of everyone’s best efforts, the Mechams passed away.
The medical examiner is not 100% certain, but speculates that their death wasn’t caused by fire, rather by “smoke inhalation.”
Inside the house, it wasn’t just smoke fumes from the tree being alight, but also fumes from the fire consuming several gifts under the tree. Duraflame logs nearby only made the fire – on the tree and the gifts – worse.
“They encountered quite a bit of fire, but it kept smoldering and off-gassing,” said Fire Chief Jeff Bassett. “Every time there is a fire, the smoke that is produced from items in our houses … There’s numerous things that create toxic gases in the smoke and that’s what really renders people unconscious.”
The actual fire had been kept relatively contained within the Mecham’s home, part of the evidence that has allowed medical officials to speculate their cause of death as something different from the fire itself.
Sadly, Christmas tree fires are very common during the holiday season. Here’s how to avoid having the same accident occur in your family home.
