SKOWHEGAN — The Office of Chief Medical Examiner is expected to release the cause of death as early as Tuesday in a fatal fire in Skowhegan on Friday.
Mark Belserene, administrator at the medical examiner’s office, said there was no information to be released Monday in the death of William Lashon, 53, whose body was found Saturday inside his home at Harvey’s Mobile Home Park off Route 150 in Skowhegan.
The death of the well-liked and respected cinema projectionist who worked 17 years at Pittsfield Community Theater, was the first fire-related fatality in Maine in 2018. Lashon’s body was found Saturday after a relative and neighbor reported they had not seen him since before Thursday’s snowstorm.
The fire was confined to a room Lashon had converted into a theater room, according to a news release issued Sunday by Steve McCausland, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety. The room had a projection screen, movie theater seats and rails.
McCausland on Monday said there were no new details to report until the medical examiner’s office examines the body and releases its findings.
“There are no new developments that I’m aware of,” he said by phone Monday afternoon.
State Fire Marshal’s Office investigators believe the fire was sparked sometime Friday by electrical wiring in the room, according to McCausland.
A message left at the State Fire Marshal’s Office Monday was not immediately returned. There were no investigators at the mobile home Monday afternoon.
After arriving at the scene Saturday, police called Skowhegan firefighters around 1:30 p.m., according to Skowhegan fire Captain Rick Caldwell and Firefighter Daryl Wyman, who responded to the mobile home park.
Caldwell and Wyman said Sunday that they were called there Saturday for an odor investigation as police could smell what appeared to have been an electrical burn, though the fire was out when police arrived. Wyman said the theater room where Lashon’s body was found had a lot of wires and extension cords and a lot of items piled on the floor.
Once firefighters dug down into the debris, which included computer towers and boxes, they found burned wires, according to Wyman and Caldwell.
The fire did not appear to be suspicious, they said Sunday.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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