Yesterday we reported on a Francesville house fire that claimed one life. Pulaski County officials stated that the fire was under investigation and the victim had not been identified. We have since learned that, according to his family members, 66 year-old Mike Lucas of Francesville was most likely the victim killed in that fire.
We spoke with Lucas’s son, 39 year-old Travis Lucas of Lafayette, who says the family members learned that it might be his Dad involved in that fire through word of mouth. Travis’s mother contacted him about rumors she had heard that Travis’ Dad, Mike, had been involved in some kind of accident.
While other family tried to contact the authorities, Travis’s Mother began looking for information on-line. She found the story of the house fire on a Pulaski News Website. Eventually, Travis’s brother in law made a phone call to Mike Lucas’s local tavern that he liked to frequent.
The tavern told them that officials had been in with a belt buckle and were trying to identify the owner. The employee knew it to be Mike Lucas’s buckle. According to the Lucas family the only official they’ve managed to speak to yet has been the local coroner who stated that it would be 6-8 weeks before they’d have definite information. The biggest confirmation the family has been able to obtain came from the son of the man who owned the home that burned. The son had visited his father who was admitted to the hospital after escaping the fire. He told the Lucas family that his Dad had asked what happened to Mike Lucas.
Lucas says the son told them the owner of the home and Mike Lucas had been watching TV when the homeowner went to bed, leaving Lucas in the living room. He awoke to the home being engulfed in flames and had to quickly escape. The family has been told that the source of the fire could have been an oxygen tank. They are anxious to speak with local officials about the fire and their Dad.
We left a message with the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department and will follow up on this story.
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