CURTIIS, Homer B. - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

Funeral arrangements for Homer B. Curtis, 45, who died of suffocation Wednesday morning in a fire at his home, 313 S. Walnut St., will be completed Friday evening after the arrival from Long Beach, Calif., of his mother, Mrs. Mabel B. Curtis. His son, 2nd Lt. Dan Curtis, stationed with the U.S. Air Force at Sherman, Tex., arrived here Thursday. The body is at the Hunt and Son Funeral Home, where friends may call beginning Saturday afternoon. Curtis was found dying just inside the front door of his home after firemen had extinguished a fire in his bedroom on the opposite side of the house. They had not been aware that he was in the house. Firemen attempted to revive him with the department's resuscitator but failed. The bed on which Curtis had been sleeping was in the northeast corner of the bedroom. All the bedding was burned off it. On the opposite side of the room, two holes were burned in the floor under a desk. The rug between the holes and the bed was not burned. This led firemen to believe that there were actually two fires in the room, one in the bed and another in the area of the desk. Fire Chief Merle Patton said it was his belief the fire started in the area of the desk, probably from a discarded cigarette. After the fire had burned for a time, the bedding probably was set on fire by heat induction from the original blaze. There was also the possibility that an ember from the desk fire could have popped over on the bed or have been carried there by the updraft from the original blaze. Chief Patton said he was convinced Curtis was not in the room at the height of the blaze due to the fact that there were no deep burns at any place on his body. He said Curtis probably was in another part of the house, possibly asleep on a chair in the living room. Patton said he could have been awakened by the fire and attempted to reach the door near which he was found. Curtis's skin was a cherry red color, indicating that carbon monoxide gas had been the actual cause of death. The fire damage was confined to the bedroom, but there was heavy smoke loss all over the house. Curtis had been living alone recently. His mother, Mrs. Mabel B. Curtis, had been living in Long Beach, Calif., with her sisters for several months. She was informed of her son's death by a neighbor. Curtis was last seen alive about 1:40 a.m. when a friend, Charles Sosbe, left the Curtis home. At 7:40 a.m., a neighbor, Paul Radford, noticed smoke pouring from the Curtis house as he left for work. Radford lives at 208 W. Jefferson St. He called the fire department. Firemen who arrived at the scene within a few minutes had the fire in the bedroom under control quickly. Seeing that no one was in the room, they did not immediately go to the other part of the house. When a neighbor noticed that Curtis' car was parked in front, she suggested to the firemen that Curtis might be inside. Fireman Harry Laird discovered Curtis lying unconscious about four feet from the front door of the house. He and other firemen pulled Curtis out on the porch, where the resuscitator was used for several minutes. It was thought at first that a faint pulse was detected, but life could not be revived. Dr. Robert H. Pierson, as acting coroner, was called to the scene to investigate. The body later was taken to the Hunt & Son Funeral Home. Curtis was widely known throughout the county. He operated extensive farming operations in the Wingate neighborhood and had long been prominent in Democratic circles. The fire victim was graduated in 1930 from Crawfordsville High School, where he was prominent in many activities. He was a star basketball player. Following graduation, he attended Wabash College and later attended Benjamin Harrison Law School at Indianapolis. Curtis was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity chapter at Wabash College; a former commander of the Wingate Post of the American Legion; the Crawfordsville Elks Lodge and the Fraternal Order of the Police. The survivors include the mother; a son, 2nd Lt. Dan Curtis, stationed at Sherman, Tex., with the U.S. Air Force, and two aunts, Miss Bernice Byrd and Miss Bessie Byrd, both of Long Beach, Calif. His father, Aetna B. Curtis, died several years ago.