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Man on oxygen dies in morning fire

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A 53-year-old man died in a fire at 2631 E. Third in Dayton early on Thursday, October 29. Early reports from the Dayton Fire Department indicate that the man was smoking while using oxygen when the fire started.

Staff photo by Ty Greenlees A 53-year-old man died in a fire at 2631 E. Third in Dayton early on Thursday, October 29. Early reports from the Dayton Fire Department indicate that the man was smoking while using oxygen when the fire started.

By Katherine Ullmer, Staff Writer Updated 11:09 AM Thursday, October 29, 2009

DAYTON — On Sunday, Nov. 1, they would have celebrated their seventh wedding anniversary.

Instead, Yvette Maxwell spent the morning of Thursday, Oct. 29, trying to save her husband, Robert Scott Maxwell, 53, from the fire that took his life in their duplex at 2631 E. Third St.

Her husband, who was disabled and suffered from lung cancer, had been on oxygen for the last nine months, she said.

They had only been awake about an hour when the accident that caused the fire happened, she said.

“I saw it happen,” she said.

Her husband sat in a chair in their front room.

“He was half awake, half asleep,” she said. “I guess he forgot he had his oxygen on. He was holding the tube in his hand and lit a cigarette and dropped it. It landed on the tube and it went up in flame. I did everything I could to put it out.”

She said she yanked the tube away and started beating it with a towel. She threw water on it.

“Robert was covered in flames,” she said. “His clothing had caught fire. I tried to get him on the floor to roll him on the floor,” but she couldn’t.

He was able to walk on his own once up but couldn’t get up or down on his own in the chair, she said. She called 911 to report her husband was burning and ran outside as the room caught on fire.

The Dayton fire department got the call at 5:22 a.m., said Capt. Jeff Lykins.

“A lady had called saying her husband was on fire. The fire department first responded with just one apparatus,” he said.

When they arrived and realized the house was on fire, firefighters called for more equipment. The room Robert Maxwell was sitting in had caught fire, Lykins said. Firefighters contained the fire to the room, but the fire had already killed Maxwell, he said.

Yvette Maxwell said she and her husband met seven years ago at the Alco-Aides Club, which at the time was at 2156 E. Third Street. He had been married before and has one grown son, she said. The club is for recovering alcoholics. “I’ve just celebrated my 15th year alcohol free,” she said.

She said her husband had worked when he could in the food industry in restaurants for almost 20 years. Before that he had worked in the glass industry with Kerr and Indiana Glass in Dunkirk, Ind., where he grew up, she said.

“He loved to work with wood,” she said. He had suffered from emphysema, COPD and asthma before being diagnosed with lung cancer over a year ago she said. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 1975 because of medical problems, she said.

The Maxwells live across from Mom’s Diner, 2701 E. Third St.

Dewayne Kinder, manager of the diner, said Robert Maxwell often came across the street to drink coffee and eat.

“He would set at the picnic table and talk with the guys,” he said. “He worked with wood, but he’s been selling his saws. He said he couldn’t bend over and cut wood any more. He was real slow. He would just fall asleep out of the blue,” he said. “His wife would help him cross the street and check on him to make sure he was alright,” Kinder said.

“He was a nice guy. He was always nice to people. Him and her both,” said Marilyn Keller, who stopped in for coffee Thursday morning just after the fire.

Third street had been closed just east of N. Findlay Street to allow fire trucks and inspectors to investigate and clean up the scene, but it’s now open.

Maxwell said the Red Cross offered to put her up in a motel for the next four nights. She has no children, but received a call from her brother while at the fire scene.

She and her husband originally were to be married on Oct. 25 seven years ago, Maxwell said. They had to postpone their wedding a week until Nov. 1 because she got hit by a truck two hours before the ceremony. She has never been able to find employment because of having seizures, she said, but she makes cakes for sale in her home when she can.

“It’s not been easy,” she said of her life.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2341 or kullmer@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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