Submitted photo

Not much remains of this Pike County house after a Jan. 9 fire. The homeowner was injured in the fire and died at the hospital Sunday.

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By RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY

PDT Staff Writer

PEEBLES — The Ohio State Fire Marshal reports that a man died Sunday from injuries sustained in a Pike County house fire earlier this month. This is the fourth fire-related fatality in Ohio since Jan. 1. There were 11 fire-related fatalities by the same date in 2011.

According to Shane Cartmill, spokesperson for the Division of State Fire Marshal, investigators could not rule out a wood burning stove, or improperly discarded smoking materials, as the possible causes for a fire that occurred at 1:36 a.m., Jan. 9, at a single-family home at 5940 Beavers Ridge Road, Peebles.

The home was destroyed by the fire.

The home’s owner, Greg Grooms, 42, was transported from the fire scene via helicopter to Cabell-Huntington Hospital in Huntington, W.Va., as the result of injuries suffered in the fire. The home’s female occupant and her adult son, also at home at the time of the fire, escaped with minor injuries. They were both treated and released the day of the fire.

Grooms died Sunday at the hospital.

Cartmill said the home was equipped with smoke alarms, but the family and responding firefighters did not report hearing them. The cause of the fire will officially be ruled “undetermined.”

The investigation was conducted by the Division of State Fire Marshal, Pike County Sheriff’s Office, the Benton Township Fire Department, the Elm Grove Volunteer Fire Department and the West Virginia Medical Examiner.

Ryan Scott Ottney can be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 235, or rottney@heartlandpublications.com.