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Man died of heart attack while smoking, setting house on fire

In a tragic sequence of events Monday, a Vietnam veteran who neighbors said was a hoarder, died of a heart attack while smoking a cigarette that then fell out of his hands and caught his Wissinoming house on fire, according to findings from the Medical Examiner's Office and the fire marshal

In a tragic sequence of events Monday, a Vietnam veteran who neighbors said was a hoarder, died of a heart attack while smoking a cigarette that then fell out of his hands and caught his Wissinoming house on fire, according to findings from the Medical Examiner's Office and the fire marshal.

Neighbors said Bob Irvine, 60, who worked as a welder at the airport, had trash piles throughout his house and an official from the Department of Licenses and Inspections said debris was more than two feet high in the home on Howell Street near Tackawanna.

Today, the Medical Examiner's Office determined Irvine died of a heart attack and was dead before the start of the fire. The Fire Marshal's Office determined that the cause of the fire was smoking, leading to the conclusion that Irvine was smoking when he had the heart attack and then dropped his cigarette, which began the blaze.

Irvine's death will not be counted as a fire fatality, bringing the number of fire fatalities this year down to 10, compared to 7 at this time last year, said Executive City Fire Chief Daniel Williams.