Published: January 03, 2009 11:09 pm      

Man perishes in Beaverdale fire

A Beaverdale man killed in a house fire early Saturday might have become disoriented in his new surroundings, a home he had only lived in for three days.

Arthur Lee Livingston Jr., 27, was found in an attic closet after firefighters responded to the 3:39 a.m. blaze.

“It doesn’t take much to become disoriented in a fire,” said Jeff Lees, Cambria County’s chief deputy coroner. “We see this in a lot of fatal house fires.’’

Livingston’s fiancee, Falesha Livella, safely escaped the two-story duplex at 421-423 Cameron Ave. with their 2-year-old son. The 423 side was unoccupied, Lees said.

“She awoke to the smell of smoke and went to investigate and spotted the fire,” he said. “She grabbed the baby, escaped the residence and called 911.”

Lee said Livella had gone to bed on the second floor shortly after midnight, leaving Livingston still awake on the first floor.

When the blaze broke out in the attic, Livella fled with the boy to the first floor looking for Livingston, Lees said.

When he wasn’t there, she went to the attic but was forced away by the flames and smoke.

Livingston, formerly of Windber, was pronounced dead by Lees at 4:43 a.m.

The deputy coroner said an autopsy showed Livingston died of toxic smoke and gas inhalation. He had suffered third-degree burns to half his body.

Lees ruled the cause of death as accidental.

George Fedore, chief of the Summerhill Township Volunteer Fire Department, said Livella had told him that, “I think he (Livingston) went running to the attic.”

The call had come in as a fire with entrapment, Fedore said.

He said the duplex suffered $10,000 damage, confined to the rear of the attic on the unoccupied 423 side. That side had no electric service.

Fedore said a state police fire marshal was investigating. The marshal said the cause of the blaze was undetermined at this time, according to the chief.

Livingston and Livella rented the home and moved in New Year’s Eve.

The owner, Blanche Leonard of Ferndale, told firefighters the house was insured.

No one else was injured.

In addition to Summerhill Township, other fire departments that responded were St. Michael, Dunlo, South Fork and Summerhill Borough.