FORSYTH COUNTY, Ga. — An extension cord is to blame for a fire that killed a Forsyth County man, firefighters said.

Richard Croy, 56, died in the fire that was reported around 5:30 Thursday morning. It happened at a home along the 5800 block of Riley Road in the northern part of the county.

“The fire was contained to a single room,” said Division Chief Jason Shivers of the Forsyth County Fire Department. Another resident in the home found the bedroom filled with smoke and called 911. Croy was pronounced dead on the scene.

“The extension cord was covered with a blanket or rug of some sort, so it was not allowed to vent, and essentially overheated and shorted,” Shivers said.

Extension cords should never be covered, he said, because they can overheat and spark a fire. “(If the cord is) laid on top of the floor, that’s fine,” he said. “But never covered up.”

Shivers also said the house had no working smoke detector. If it had, he believes the victim may have survived. “It’s very important to note that you cannot smell when you’re asleep,” he said. “That’s a function of the body that the brain turns off. When you sleep, you cannot smell. That’s why we have to have smoke alarms.”

The victim’s sister, Christina Croy, lives across the road from the house.

“He was a good person,” she said. “He’d help anybody. He would. He’s going to be missed by a lot of people.”

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