Miami County fire kills 3

By DANIELLE RUSH and KEN de la BASTIDE
Tribune staff writers

April 06, 2009 10:16 pm

— BUNKER HILL — As Wayne Miller prepared to go to bed late Sunday night, he looked out his window and saw flames shooting from his neighbor’s house.
He called 911, then drove down the road, hoping to help.
“I was hoping someone would be outside when we got there, but they weren’t,” he said.
The home’s occupants, Art and June Sampsel and their son, Jeff, all died in the fire, which destroyed their rural Miami County home.
Sgt. Gary Glassburn with the Miami County Sheriff Department said fire units were dispatched to the Sampsels’ home, 9858 South County Road 200 East, at 11:55 p.m. Sunday and found flames already shooting from the roof.
When firefighters responded they learned there were occupants trapped inside the home, according to a press release. During fire suppression efforts firefighters discovered the bodies of the three victims.
Miami County Coroner Tom Leedy pronounced the Sampsels and their son dead at the scene. The cause and manner of death is pending final determination by the coroner’s office.
Investigators determined the cause of the fire to be an accidental electrical fire starting on the first floor of the home.
Responding to the scene were the Pipe Creek Volunteer Fire Department, Grissom Fire Department, Amboy Fire Department, Converse Fire Department, Indiana State Police, Miami County Sheriff Department, Indiana State Fire Marshal, Miami County Emergency Medical Services (Dukes Hospital), Miami County Emergency Management Agency and the Red Cross..
Neighbor Darlene Miller said the couple generally went to bed early in their upstairs bedroom, and she saw their son arrive home around 8:30 p.m. She added that June Sampsel had serious health problems and was using oxygen. The Miller family thought possibly the couple stored extra oxygen tanks in the office on the north side of their home, where the fire damage appeared worst.
Darlene Miller remembered the Sampsels as good neighbors who had lived in the house since long before her family moved into their home nearby.
“We always knew each other was there if we needed each other ... You think of this happening somewhere away, not next door. I just want it to be a bad dream.”

Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.