Fire Investigators Say Occupants Of Muskogee Home Were Stealing Electricity

Two men are in critical condition after a Muskogee house fire and two women are in jail. Investigators said what was happening inside the home was criminal.

Wednesday, December 10th 2014, 9:28 pm

By: Tess Maune

Fire Investigators Say Occupants Of Muskogee Home Were Stealing Electricity

Two men are in critical condition after a Muskogee house fire and two women are in jail.

Investigators said what was happening inside the home was criminal.

Fire investigators said the people inside the house were stealing electricity from the next-door neighbor and likely trying to power the entire house.

12/10/2014 Related Story: Two Men Critically Injured In Muskogee House Fire

Muskogee Fire Marshal Ray Bob Daniels raked through what's left of the back room of a house on Eastside Boulevard.

“There's a breaker panel just on the other side of that wall,” he said.

Wiring, that Daniels said was attached to that breaker panel, snakes down the back steps and straight to the neighbor's power box outside.

“You can see where it has been cut right here, and then you can see where we have wires exposed right here in this box which supplies electricity to this air conditioner,” Daniels said.

Daniels said it's possible the fire sparked because the wiring couldn't handle the amount of power the people were trying to use.

There were also several space heaters throughout the house.

“I don't know if they had the wiring plugged into a heater... just don't know what was going on in there,” he said.

A police officer noticed the fire just after 8:30 a.m.

When he got to the house, he pulled one man, who had been badly burned, to safety.

But police say Jennifer Walker, Sharron Willis and another burned man were trying to get away.

The women were arrested for outstanding warrants -- and the men were taken to a Tulsa hospital with critical injuries.

Daniels says a propane tank exploded in the back yard adding to the injuries.

And while he can't say exactly how the fire started quite yet, he said there's no denying one thing.

“They were stealing electricity from the neighbor's house,” Daniels said.

Police told fire investigators the people who were in the house have stolen electricity before, the last time it was from the neighbor on the other side of the house.