{"id":49231,"date":"2021-01-18T23:19:30","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T06:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-man-found-dead-in-camper-fire\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:46:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:46:28","slug":"cortez-man-found-dead-in-camper-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-man-found-dead-in-camper-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez man found dead in camper fire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Fire
Fire crews responded to a camper fire on this property south of Cortez Saturday. A man was found deceased inside. The case remains under investigation.<\/span>Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A man was found dead Saturday after a camper fire south of Cortez, according to Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

The fire was reported at 2:42 p.m. on E. Seventh St., south of the intersection of Sligo Street, he said.<\/p>\n

The victim was identified as Eddie Dale Green, 63, of Cortez, according to Montezuma County Coroner George Deavers. Next of kin have been notified.<\/p>\n

After the fire was extinguished, Green was found dead in the camper trailer, Nowlin said. The camper was destroyed in the fire.<\/p>\n

The cause of death is being investigated by the coroner, sheriff and Cortez Fire Protection District. Results of an autopsy and toxicology analysis are pending.<\/p>\n

Nowlin said smoke inhalation and fire are the suspected cause of death. No foul play is suspected, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a report of an explosion, and the camper became engulfed in flames,\u201d Nowlin said. \u201cIt looks like an accidental explosion and fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

A suspected cause of the fire was a rudimentary heating system that used propane gas tanks inside the camp trailer to create a flame, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

A witness tried to help the person inside, but the burning trailer was too hot to get to, he said.<\/p>\n

Cortez Fire Protection District crews arrived and quickly knocked down the fire, said Chief Jay Balfour. He said windy conditions caused the fire to quickly grow.<\/p>\n

John Longbrake, a friend and neighbor of Green\u2019s, said \u201che was a nice guy, and was well known around here. He was a mechanic and fixed things around the property.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Green had recently started collecting Social Security and was building a windmill that he had hooked up to a car generator to create free energy.<\/p>\n

Balfour and Nowlin advised the public to keep propane containers outside campers and to use properly made and vented heating systems to avoid accidental fires and carbon monoxide poisoning.<\/p>\n

\u201cCamp trailer fires generally burn very quickly,\u201d Balfour said. He advised camp trailer owners to use an appropriate heater that it is vented outside and to keep a fire extinguisher nearby.<\/p>\n

The case remains under investigation by the Sheriff\u2019s Office, Cortez Fire Protection District and the county coroner.<\/p>\n

Balfour also reported two other recent fires.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 3, a residence on U.S. Highway 160 south of Cortez caught fire after hot ashes discarded from a pellet stove ignited, Balfour said. The resident woke up to the living room on fire and was able to escape unharmed. Fire damage to the home was 50%, and smoke damage was 50%.<\/em>On Nov. 20, a camper fire on Empire Street was caused by an unconnected gas line leaking gas, Balfour said. The camper exploded after a stove was lit, he said. The occupant had stepped out prior to the explosion, and no injuries were reported.<\/em><\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

On Jan. 3, a residence on U.S. Highway 160 south of Cortez caught fire after hot ashes discarded from a pellet stove ignited, Balfour said. The resident woke up to the living room on fire and was able to escape unharmed. Fire damage to the home was 50%, and smoke damage was 50%.<\/em>On Nov. 20, a camper fire on Empire Street was caused by an unconnected gas line leaking gas, Balfour said. The camper exploded after a stove was lit, he said. The occupant had stepped out prior to the explosion, and no injuries were reported.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

occurred Saturday off E. Seventh Street<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,255,350,13,28,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-death-and-dying","tag-fire","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87544,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49231\/revisions\/87544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49231"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}