{"id":2874,"date":"2010-11-02T11:48:01","date_gmt":"2010-11-02T18:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2010-11-02T12:19:23","modified_gmt":"2010-11-02T19:19:23","slug":"deaths-of-two-lewis-county-men-ruled-accidental-following-residential-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/?p=2874","title":{"rendered":"Deaths of two Lewis County men ruled accidental following residential fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker
\nLewis County Sirens news reporter
\n<\/strong>
\nCHEHALIS –\u00a0 The Lewis County Coroner’s Office is identifying the Centralia man who whose body was found when a fire in his apartment was extinguished early yesterday as Ron Ray Meeks, age 56.<\/p>\n

Centralia fire authorities had listed Meeks yesterday as 54.<\/p>\n

\"2010.1101.meeks.house\"<\/a>

Ron Meeks home<\/p><\/div>\n

Chief Deputy Coroner Dawn Harris said this morning Meeks died from smoke inhalation and his manner of death is being classified as an accident.<\/p>\n

The cause of the approximately 4 a.m. fire on Monday on the 300 block of Magnolia Street has not been released, but the fire chief has said it is not suspicious.<\/p>\n

Meeks moved into the complex in February and his girlfriend moved out about three weeks ago, according to neighbors.<\/p>\n

Harris said his only immediate family is one sister who lives in Utah.<\/p>\n

Harris said this morning the office has made the same findings about 54-year-old Gary Ike, who perished in his Ethel home late Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

The cause of that fire is most likely an accident from combustible materials too close to a space heater, according to fire investigator Derrick Paul.<\/p>\n

\"2010.1029.mug.gary.ike_2\"<\/a>

Gary Allen Ike<\/p><\/div>\n

Seven space heaters were found in the house, which had a wood stove as its main heat source , Paul said. Ike had been burning in the wood stove, Paul said this morning.<\/p>\n

It was partially the large amount of material kept in the small house that led Paul to that conclusion, he said.<\/p>\n

“There was lots and lots of clutter, there was lots and lots of stuff everywhere,” he said.<\/p>\n

In both fires, investigators lamented the lack of working smoke detectors.<\/p>\n

Paul said last week that’s a commonality in almost every fire fatality they see.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u2022\u2022<\/p>\n

Read “Resident from Ethel’s fatal house fire was a ‘good guy’ ” from 7:46 a.m. on Friday Oct. 29, 2010 here<\/a><\/p>\n

Read “Cause of fatal Centralia apartment fire still unknown, but not suspicious, fire chief says” from 7 p.m. yesterday Monday Nov. 1, 2010 here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sharyn\u00a0 L. Decker Lewis County Sirens news reporter CHEHALIS –\u00a0 The Lewis County Coroner’s Office is identifying the Centralia man who whose body was found when a fire in his apartment was extinguished early yesterday as Ron Ray Meeks, age 56. Centralia fire authorities had listed Meeks yesterday as 54. Chief Deputy Coroner Dawn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-story","tag-by-sharyn-l-decker","tag-news-reporter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2878,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lewiscountysirens.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}