December 6, 2008 - Early Morning Fire claims the life of Shreveport’s Seventh Victim

The Second Death in the Allendale Community

This morning, fire has tragically claimed the life of another elderly Shreveport resident. At 2:03 a.m., firefighters were dispatched to a home located at 1540 Madison in the Allendale community. Fire crews arrived on scene within four minutes to find one structure fully engulfed in flames and spreading onto a neighboring vacant home. It took 20 firefighters -- 7 full fire crews—an hour and a half to extinguish the heavy flames.

Captain Raymond Shamburger was the first official on scene and he reported heavy flames coming from the northeast corner of the structure. The situation escalated when the flames started to travel and burn the nearby power lines. At that point, Shamburger said, SWEPCO was called in to turn off power at the poles.

After extinguishing the fire, Roosevelt Allen Sr., 72, was discovered lying in his bed; there was no evidence that he even attempted to flee from the fire.

“The cause of this fire is under investigation. The fire patterns indicate the fire originated in the living room. Evidence has been collected and submitted to the Northwest Louisiana Crime Lab for analysis and we’re awaiting results from the Caddo Coroner’s Office to determine the cause of death,” said Fire Investigator Mike Hood.”

“This is the seventh fire death of 2008 and the second in the Allendale community. The number of fire deaths has not risen this high, since 1997. We are working diligently to educate the community of the dangers of fire. We are following the recommendations of the Fire Safety Task Force, and will partner with a local organization next week to install 10-year-tamperproof, lithium powered smoke alarms in the Allendale community,” according to Fire Chief Brian Crawford.