Document text
Officials rule out foul play in fire But cause remains uncertain By JIM DAVIS APPLEGATE -- Police on Monday ruled out the possibility of foul play in a weekend fire that destroyed a mobile home, killing a mother and her son. Valinda Hall, 40, and Cody, 10, a fourth-grader at Applegate Elementary School, are believed to be the victims of the blaze that occurred early Sunday morning, said Jackson County sheriff's Sgt. Dick Allen. "It's just a tragedy that something like this had happened," Allen said. Fire investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the fire at 15095 Highway 238. Firefighters cannot find smoke alarms in the burned-out rubble of the home, said Applegate District 9 Fire Chief Brett Fillis. Several witnesses -- including the homeowner and a boyfriend of Valinda Hall, who moved out earlier this month -- told investigators that the home had two smoke alarms, with one in the living room and one in a back hallway. "We looked and we looked hard," Fillis said. "We shoveled and raked even in the rooms that didn't burn and we couldn't find them." He said the alarms had either been removed before the fire or were burned beyond recognition. The fire began about 1:50 a.m. Sunday in the kitchen of the small, single-wide mobile home, which was directly behind the Applegate Store. Firefighters have a station a block away and were on the scene within five minutes of receiving the call. The house was engulfed in flames with fire coming out windows and the front door. Crews quickly extinguished the blaze and then found two bodies inside. Fire investigators believe the fire started behind a range in the kitchen, Fillis said. The kitchen range did not have an electrical problem, but there were several electrical cords behind the range that could have been the source of the fire, Fillis said. "There are several possibilities," Fillis said. "It's going to be difficult to eliminate a couple of them." Late Monday, police still had not identified the bodies, but Sgt. Allen said there is "no reason not to believe these are the people." Valinda Hall and Cody -- who have lived in the Applegate most of their lives -- rented the home since September when they moved in with her boyfriend. The couple broke up earlier this month. He moved out and she remained with her son. Jasper, the Hall's Yorkshire terrier, survived the fire and got out of the home when firefighters opened a back door. The home is part of Applegate Properties, owned by Bob Hoogendyk, who also is one of the owners of the Applegate Store. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA