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2 Dead After Buckeye Lake House Fire

Updated: Thursday, January 24 2013, 05:31 PM EST
FAIRFIELD COUNTY -- Did efforts to keep warm cost a Fairfield County couple their lives?  

Tonight the State Fire Marshal is releasing new information about a fatal house fire in Thornville.

Investigators tell ABC6 they found several space heaters throughout the home, some near combustible materials. They also say many of the electrical outlets had adapters allowing for extension cords. All adding up to a recipe for disaster.

Flames erupted from the Shell Beach Road home overnight Thursday.

The commotion enough to wake neighbor Betty Bennett. "Between the snow and the smoke both looked like a big fog at first," she said. "It was terrible."

The toll it would take on this tight knit community would be even worse.

Five people escaped the flames, but two did not. Mary and Milton Clagg died. His friends called him Butch.

"Mary was sick and at home on oxygen most of the time as I understand it," said Bennett. "Butch would every morning walk up and down the road and get rides up to the store and back."  

Butch Clagg helped build The Village Pantry back in 1956.

He would visit several days a week to buy Little Debbie Swiss Rolls and Peach Snapple for Mary.

"I'd always have to keep them in stock for him cause he would come up here, get his Swiss Rolls," said Mark. "He had a sweet tooth."

Amber Dermer teared up as she talked about the couple. "They were like my parents.  If you needed advice or anything you needed, you could go to them with a problem and say hey I've got a problem, can you help me?  And if they could, they would help you."

But there was no helping the couple out of their burning home.

Their bodies were found together near a bathroom.

The cause of the fire hasn't been determined.

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Reporter: Terri Sullivan
Web Producer: Kellie Hanna2 Dead After Buckeye Lake House Fire