Obituaries:  Kenneth Boatman, Sabine Parish       B-355
Source:  Sabine Index, Many, La., Nov 3, 1977
Submitted by: Carl Dilbeck
              carlrad@earthlink.net


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Kenneth Boatman

  An early morning fire on Friday, Oct. 28, claimed the life of a
Many man and partially destroyed part of his Lawrence Street
home. Dead from smoke inhalation was Kenneth Boatman, 50, a self
employed land surveyor, who first moved to Many in 1961.

  The Fire Marshal, Phil Darnell, was called in to conduct an
investigation.

  The cause of the fire, which aroused volunteers at 2:30 a.m.,
was credited to faulty wiring in the front room of the spacious
home. The room was totally demolished, but the remainder of the
house only received damages from smoke.

  The blaze was discovered by a next door neighbor, Lisa Pickett
at 2:25 a.m. A noise, whether it was the fire blazing or not,
awoke her. She peered out her bedroom window, and saw that the
Boatman home was ablaze. Immediately reacting, she alerted her
father, John R. Pickett, and the rest of the family.

  Pickett gave an account of the happenings the morning after the
tragedy.

  "When Lisa woke me up, I jumped up and looked out the bathroom
window," he recalled. "My first thought was 'Oh God, this isn't
real.'"

  Pickett hurriedly called the fire department, and told someone
to "get here in a hurry, the house looks like it's almost gone."

  Pickett's eldest daughter, Nina, had already run across the
vacant lot separating the Pickett and Boatman homes. As Pickett
headed across the lot, Nina yelled to him that both of Boatman's
vehicles were behind the house. "I figured he was inside,"
Pickett said emotionally.

  "I ran to the front porch and touched a bike setting on the
porch," Pickett recounted. "They were extremely hot." He doubled
around to the rear of the home, and found that the front portion
of the house was engulfed in flames.

  Hoping to gain entry through the rear of the home, Pickett
grabbed a mop and began breaking the windows. Time and time
again, he hit the windows, which lined the back room, until the
mop handle broke into several pieces. Pickett then picked up a
garbage can lid, and continued breaking the windows.

  Smoke began boiling out of the broken windows, forcing Pickett
to seek another entrance into the home. Within seconds, he found
a side door and thrust it open. More smoke, made it unable for
him to enter the office.

  During Pickett's valiant efforts, the Many Volunteer Fire Dept.
arrived and rushed into the home. They found Boatman in his
bedroom, just in front of the office. Working quickly, the EMT's
of the fire Dept. tried to revive Boatman. There was no pulse.

  Heavy damages were done to the roof, front room, and portions of
the den. Smoke damage throughout the home was extensive. The heat
from the blaze was so extreme that the aluminum framing of the
windows melted.