HANCOCK COUNTY — Officials are still investigating a barn fire to determine its cause and to see whether the blaze is responsible for the death of an Indianapolis man in Buck Creek Township early Monday morning.
The body of William Parker, 58, Indianapolis, was discovered inside the burned-out barn by Buck Creek Township Fire Department first-responders around 7 a.m., after they had put out the flames, Chief Dave Sutherlin said.
Parker was found partially underneath a car he apparently had been working on, said Captain Robert Harris of the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department. Officials don’t know whether the car fell on Parker or how the fire started.
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The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department, Indiana State Fire Marshal’s Office, and Buck Creek Township Fire Department are all investigating the death.
The fire was reported shortly before 6 a.m. at a property in the 3400 block of North County Road 400W.
Fire officials described the fire as intense and immediately called for assistance, but Harris said there was plenty of tanker water available to put the blaze out. Crews did so in about 35 minutes.
Karen Coppedge, who lives on the property as a tenant with Parker, her boyfriend, told authorities she woke to a neighbor knocking on her door telling her the barn was on fire, Harris said.
As firefighters worked to extinguish the flames, Coppedge told them he might still be inside. She told officials Parker had been in the barn working on the brakes of her car and she was not sure where he was.
Coppedge had seen and spoken to Parker around 2 a.m. Monday, when she got home from work, she told officials. Parker told her he was going to work on her car and that he might leave to get a part. That was the last time she saw him before going to bed, she told authorities.
Harris said there was electricity in the barn, which was being used as an automotive workshop. Harris said he counted at least three heavily damaged cars in the area after the fire.
Investigators for now are looking toward the work he was doing on the woman’s car as a possible cause for the fire. Coppedge said her vehicle was raised on a jack and Parker was working under it when she left the barn to go into the house for bed. The fire was discovered four hours later.
“We do know brake fluid is highly flammable,” Harris said. “But, we still don’t know what officially happened at this point.”
An autopsy on Parker is expected to be performed as soon as possible.
