An apartment fire early Tuesday morning resulted in the death of an IU graduate student.\nThe incident began when members of the Bloomington Fire Department were called to an apartment complex at 407 S. Grant St. at 5:21 a.m. Tuesday to investigate the smell of burning rubber. Upon arrival at the scene, firefighters found smoke coming from around the door of Apt. 3 of the 12-unit complex, officials said. Bloomington Fire Department Chief Jeff Barlow said the incident was then upgraded to a structure fire response and more emergency units were dispatched. \n"The building was evacuated and firefighters did enter the apartment to find heavy smoke conditions throughout the apartment," Barlow said. "During that search the firefighters found a man crouched in a closet in the apartment's back bedroom."\nBarlow said firefighters removed the victim, later identified as 42-year-old Darrell Burton, and along with ambulance personnel treated him on the scene before transporting him to Bloomington Hospital. Burton was pronounced dead around 6:30 a.m. \nBarlow said preliminary investigations indicate a cigarette caused a couch in the living room to ignite. \n"We are officially at this point determining that the fire was in fact an accidental fire, and we believe the cause to be discarded or unattended smoking material," he said.\nThe damage from the fire was contained to the living room, but while the fire itself was relatively small, a large amount of carbon dioxide was released in the smoke, Barlow said. He added that carbon monoxide bonds with the bloodstream much more readily than oxygen and when a person's brain becomes oxygen-starved, their body and mind might do things that they may not do in their everyday lives. This might explain why Burton chose to hide from the smoke in a closet. \n"You wouldn't think about thinking of a closet as an escape route, especially in your own home. However, carbon monoxide does have that effect on the bloodstream and the mind," Barlow said. "We believe that most likely, because of the toxic by-products in that smoke and the carbon monoxide levels, Mr. Burton was confused at that point and that that was most likely what led to him ending up in the closet." \nWhile the fire has been ruled accidental, fire officials say they will continue to investigate some circumstances surrounding the incident. One aspect that investigators are looking at is the performance of smoke detectors located throughout the apartment complex. While officials with the Housing and Neighborhood Development Department told fire department officials that an inspection conducted earlier this year found all detectors on the property to be functioning properly, there have been reports from residents in the complex indicating this was not the case Tuesday morning.\nThird floor resident and IU senior Sal Picardi said he was awakened by another building resident who banged on his door to alert him of the fire. When he rolled out of bed to get the door, Picardi said he turned on the light and saw about a foot-thick layer of smoke along his ceiling. His smoke detector did not make a sound.\n"I just grabbed a coat and a hat and ran outside," he said.\nBarlow said the incident drives home the true tragedy in fire death and is a perfect example of the need for increased fire safety.\n"Having an escape plan, having a working smoke detector that you check on a regular basis and paying attention to the fire safety issues before you have a fire are critical at reducing fire life-loss," he said.
A friend, student and teacher \nThose who knew Darrell Burton remember him as an outgoing, talented person who was just beginning to see his true potential. A native of Little Rock, Ark., Burton earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas in 2000. Now in his third year as a graduate student in IU's creative writing program, Burton has had his work published in the Crab Orchard Review, The Ryder and Equinox.\nBurton has also been the recipient of such honors as the Alma K Dougherty Award for Creative Writing from the University of Arkansas and most recently the Samuel Yellen Fellowship in Poetry at IU during the 2000-2001 academic year. Director of IU's creative writing program Tony Ardizzone said Burton possessed promising talent and was one of their more popular students in the program. \n"Everybody liked him," he said. "He was an excellent poet. He was just at the point where he was beginning to put together his thesis."\nThesis director and creative writing department faculty member Cathy Bowman said Burton will be remembered as a truly great guy and an extraordinarily talented writer. \n"His poems were both happy and sad at the same time, so they had this very complex kind of emotion," she said. "He was very witty and funny and a very direct person." \nBurton was also beginning to work on a project with Hall-of-Fame running back Eric Dickerson. Ardizzone said he was going to work with the ex-Indianapolis Colt as a ghost writer for his planned autobiography.\n"All of his promise was coming together," Ardizzone said. "He had a very strong individual voice as a writer. He was a very strong teacher. I mean, we're just devastated." \nBurton was teaching two 200-level classes in poetry writing this semester and had previously taught undergraduate courses in creative writing and freshman composition. Ardizzone said he will visit Burton's classes today to speak with students, and encourages any students who don't get the chance to see him in class to visit him or call him in his office at 855-7120. \nA service for Burton is planned for Thursday, Dec. 12 at Beck Chapel. \n"We're going to do this and try to honor his death in the best way possible," Ardizzone said. "...It's just (that) everybody really loved him"
