INDIANAPOLIS — A 78-year-old man died after his clothes caught fire while he poured gasoline into a snowblower Monday on the city's northeast side, according to the Indianapolis Fire Department.
Firefighters arrived around 5:20 p.m. at a house near East 43rd Street and North Sheridan Avenue where they found heavy smoke coming from an attached garage, IFD Battalion Chief Rita Reith said in a news release.
IFD investigators believe Jonnie Douglas was smoking while pouring gasoline into the gas tank of his snowblower when the fumes ignited, setting his clothes and the snowblower on fire.
Reith said Douglas was transported in critical condition to Eskenazi Hospital where he later died.
Douglas was the seventh fatality in the IFD service district, Reith said.
