By Olivia Lloyd
The Charlotte Observer
SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Two people died in a 120-degree home after they said their heater wasn’t keeping the house warm enough, according to South Carolina authorities.
The Spartanburg County coroner has identified them as 84-year-old Joan Littlejohn and 82-year-old Glennwood Fowler.
Family told police they were at the home Jan. 3 to look at the heater after the couple said their home was getting too cold, an officer with the Spartanburg Police Department wrote in an incident report.
The couple’s children told police both the heater and hot water heater appeared to be out, then they fiddled with the hot water heater and a light came back on. They left the home, but three days went by without hearing from their parents, police said.
1,000-degree heater
Spartanburg police conducted a wellness check at the home the evening of Jan. 6.
First responders entered the home through a window into the bedroom and found the man and woman dead. The man was lying on the bed, and the woman was slouched over in a chair.
When a medic tried to take the couple’s temperatures, they exceeded the thermometer’s highest measurement of 106 degrees, police said.
The fire department was called to assist, and they recorded the home’s temperature at 120 degrees, Brad Hall with the Spartanburg Fire Department told McClatchy News.
Even with the cold air blowing through the house after first responders arrived, Hall said he was about to start sweating from the heat.
Once fire officials determined carbon monoxide levels were safe, firefighters tried to figure out why the home was so hot if there was no immediate evidence of fire.
They entered the basement, where the heaters were kept.
“One firefighter stated the heater was so hot it looked as if the basement was currently on fire,” the responding officer wrote in the police report.
The fire department used thermal imaging cameras and found the heater was about 1,000 degrees, Hall told McClatchy News.
Realizing the heater wasn’t actually on fire, they disconnected it, and a paramedic called the coroner’s office, police said.
Hall couldn’t speculate about how exactly the heater reached such a high temperature, but a malfunction could be at fault.
“We did not note foul play to the bodies on scene but are concerned with why the temperature was so high,” coroner Rusty Clevenger said in his report Jan. 8 . “We followed through with Forensic exams this morning that will require more testing. CO2 is one test as it was mentioned in the police report. We will continue to investigate.”
Spartanburg is about 90 miles northwest of Columbia .
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