Police in Fayetteville say an autopsy has found that longtime Dickson Street businessman Bruce Walker died of soot and smoke inhalation when a fire burned his business. The 57-year-old Walker died Monday after being found unconscious inside the burning Flying Possum Leather shop. Investigators say the fire appears to have started in the rear of the store and that there is no sign of arson. A cause has not been determined. Walker had operated the store since 1975 and made…

Shortly after extinguishing a house fire in a Fishersville, Virginia, home late Friday night, local firefighters began working with the home’s owner to see what could be salvaged. Augusta County firefighter Jason Melton said that his crew, accompanied by the Preston Yancey Fire Department, responded to a emergency call at 85 Painter Lane. “We were able to subdue it fairly quickly,” Melton said. No one was injured. The cause has yet to be determined. The home’s owner, local musician Buddy…

After a recent fire started when a guitar case was left on a stovetop, Boulder Fire and Rescue wants folk in the Colorado area to remember to never use a stovetop as a storage area. The fire in a carriage house last week was the third fire this fall to start when a stove was accidentally turned on while something was on top of the range. A fourth fire started when a smoldering potholder was put back in a drawer,…

A sell-out Kings of Leon concert at London’s O2 arena has been postponed after two tour buses were destroyed in a fire. Six people needed treatment for smoke inhalation after the fire broke out in a loading area, leaving the buses gutted. A spokeswoman for The O2 said: “Unfortunately, due to this morning’s fire on board one of the tour buses at The O2, tonight’s Kings of Leon concert will now be postponed. “…there is now insufficient time to rig…

A young couple was fortunate to escape as the South Osborne building housing their apartment suite went up in flames early Monday morning. Tenant Alexandra French, 20, was taking a bath about 4:30 a.m. when she heard the fire alarm sound and woke her boyfriend, A.J. Dakin-Schmid, 21. The two quickly fled, grabbing their pet rabbit Nibbles and Dakin-Schmid’s guitar. Sam Dakin, Dakin-Schmid’s mother, quickly arrived on scene to see the two-storey building engulfed in flames. “We’re so lucky that…

(CBS/AP)  Fire officials in California say a fire at a warehouse that stored memorabilia belonging to Neil Young started in a vintage car the singer had converted into a hybrid vehicle. Belmont-San Carlos Fire Marshal Jim Palisi told the San Mateo County Times the Nov. 9 fire began in Young’s 1959 Lincoln Continental and spread to the nearby warehouse in the San Francisco Bay area. Young had converted the car to run on batteries and a biodiesel-powered generator as part…

A fire has destroyed part of Neil Young’s warehouse in San Carlos, California, where he kept guitar cases, vintage cars, paintings and other artifacts. The fire at the 10,000 square-foot warehouse was reported at 2:55 AM, and by the time fire-fighters had put it out it had caused at least $1 million in damage. Officials estimate that 70 percent of the items in the warehouse were salvaged — though it’s unclear how damaged they were. Arson is not suspected, and…

An early-morning fire injured two Watertown firefighters and caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to a duplex. According to Captain Thomas Walsh, Watertown Fire Inspector, the fire began in a basement clothes dryer at 41 Harrington St. sometime before 2:45 a.m. on Sept. 29. A report shows that it apparently started when heat from the dryer ignited lint, dust and other materials like a penny and several guitar picks that had built up in the dryer’s exhaust vent….

I often ask myself – if there was ever a fire in my house (touch wood), what would I take?  My usual answer would always be: a file containing important documents in one hand, and my emotional side would say irreplaceable photo albums in the other hand.  Ok, maybe a few hands, with the number of albums I have, but you get my drift. Well the San Jose Mercury News interviewed four people who had to answer that very question for real,…

A New Zealand family were left homeless after a house fire swept through their home.  The consolation – their guitar survived the blaze.   Richard Lumsden, 20, said the family heard crackling noises coming from a bedroom where a heater had been left on.  ”We opened the door and that room was up in flames. We all got out of the house pretty quick.”  Yesterday, Richard Lumsden picked through the debris. The “odds and sods” left untouched by the fire…