A state fire marshal's investigator ruled that a Rossville man died this week because he smoked in bed.
According to a news release from the Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner, 70-year-old James Burnette was puffing a cigarette while also breathing through oxygen equipment in his home on Green Lake Circle in Rossville on Sunday, Oct. 1. The bed then caught fire.
Paramedics and EMTs rushed him to Erlanger Health System around 2 a.m. Sunday, but doctors declared Brunette dead. The Catoosa County Fire Department put out the flames.
The fire has been ruled as accidental.