A cigarette and an oxygen tank formed a fiery combination that killed a bedridden multiple sclerosis patient early yesterday in Owings Mills, authorities said.
Ralph Lee Harveson, 44, had suffered from the degenerative nerve disease for at least eight years and was virtually paraplegic, but he refused to surrender his independence and move into a group home, his brother, Carlton "Harvey" Harveson, said yesterday. And although he relied on bottled oxygen, Ralph Harveson ignored pleas from friends and relatives that he give up cigarettes.
"He just looks at you and lights another one," his brother said yesterday. Authorities said Ralph Harveson apparently fell asleep while smoking in his upstairs bedroom in a townhouse in the first block of Meriam Court. A tube led from an oxygen tank to his nose.
"Once the tube burns off you've just got oxygen feeding the fire," said Battalion Chief Patrick Kelly of the Baltimore County Fire Department. "He just couldn't get out of bed when the bed was on fire."
Chief Kelly said paramedics had been called to the house at least once before to treat Mr. Harveson for burns to his face, but he could not provide more details.
Baltimore County authorities began to receive calls of a fire in the townhouse shortly after midnight. Mr. Harveson was dead by the time the first person on the scene, Baltimore County police Cpl. Mark Williams, found him. Corporal Williams was treated for smoke inhalation at the Northwest Hospital Center and released. Chief Kelly said the fire damaged the upper floor of the townhouse, but caused no significant damage to neighboring homes.
Harvey Harveson said that his brother shared the house with another man, who apparently was not home.
Mr. Harveson, who lives in Reisterstown, said his brother is also survived by his father, three sisters, a former wife and a 19-year-old daughter who lives in California.