Claremore Police Identify Man Killed In Early Morning House Fire

Breaking News Update: November 4 - 1:30 p.m.

Claremore police have identified a man who died in a house fire early Wednesday morning.

Police identified the victim as 89-year-old Walter Gene Barrow of Claremore.

This is a News On 6 breaking news update. The original story can be found below.

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A Claremore man died in a house fire early Wednesday. Authorities have not released his name.

The house, on Archer Drive on the southwest side of Claremore, was fully involved when firefighters arrived, according to Fire Chief Sean Douglas.

“The first arriving police officer said they could see a glow from down the street.

Hours after the fire was out, the attic was still smoking.

The interior was gutted.

Douglas said it's the first fire death in Claremore in the last 10 years.

His investigator is looking into what happened, and the State Medical Examiner’s Office took the body for an autopsy.

The fire chief said judging from the spread of the fire, the victim was likely dead when they arrived. "They found out we had a possible victim but they weren't able to make entry to rescue the victim.”

The house that burned is on Archer Drive on the Southwest side of Claremore. One man lived in the house, which had a couple of furnaces the fire chief speculates might be involved, considering the first few days of cool weather. The state fire marshal's office is investigating, and Claremore Police say for now there's nothing suspicious about it, but they want to make sure that it was an accidental fire.