Fire Investigators Say Occupants Of Muskogee Home Were Stealing Electricity

MUSKOGEE, Oklahoma - Two men are in critical condition after a Muskogee house fire and two women are in jail.

Investigators said what was happening inside the home was criminal.

Fire investigators said the people inside the house were stealing electricity from the next-door neighbor and likely trying to power the entire house. 12/10/2014 Related Story: Two Men Critically Injured In Muskogee House Fire

Muskogee Fire Marshal Ray Bob Daniels raked through what's left of the back room of a house on Eastside Boulevard.

There's a breaker panel just on the other side of that wall, he said.

Wiring, that Daniels said was attached to that breaker panel, snakes down the back steps and straight to the neighbor's power box outside.

You can see where it has been cut right here, and then you can see where we have wires exposed right here in this box which supplies electricity to this air conditioner, Daniels said.

Daniels said it's possible the fire sparked because the wiring couldn't handle the amount of power the people were trying to use.

There were also several space heaters throughout the house.

I don't know if they had the wiring plugged into a heater... just don't know what was going on in there, he said.

More:
Fire Investigators Say Occupants Of Muskogee Home Were Stealing Electricity