EXTRA CONTENT: Police investigating suspicious circumstances surrounding Corbin house fire

To see the official report of this fire, click here.

The cause and circumstances surrounding a fire that severely damaged a downtown Corbin home in the early-morning hours New Years Day is currently under investigation, but authorities say the timing of the blaze is definitely suspicious.

Firefighters with the Corbin Fire Department were called to 201 11th Street at about 3:21 a.m. last Friday to extinguish a blaze at the two-level duplex apartment home. According to Corbin Fire Chief Barry McDonald, flames were shooting out of the roof of the upstairs apartment when firefighters arrived.

"We called everybody in to help," McDonald said. "We got the ladder truck there and knocked it down pretty fast but it was already pretty bad when we got there."

McDonald said the resident living in the first-floor apartment, Jimmy Johns Sr., was unaware the fire was blazing above him and had to be roused from his slumber by police and evacuated from the home.

The two residents of the second-floor apartment, Phillip Patterson and Emmanuel Roark, were not home at the time of the blaze.

Corbin Police Department Detective Sgt. Bill Rose, who is investigating the fire, said the timing of it is suspicious to police because authorities were at the home only hours before after Patterson and Roark allegedly got into some sort of domestic altercation with one another.

Sgt. Glenn Taylor Jr. and Patrolman Kirk Mays responded to the fight at around midnight.

"When Officer Taylor got there, one of the guys, the Patterson boy, he was in some kind of respiratory distress," Rose said. "Apparently, he was in bad shape and they said they needed an ambulance quickly. He was unresponsive and barely breathing, like he was having some type of asthma attack or something."

Rose said Patterson remains hospitalized at Baptist Regional Medical Center in the Critical Care Unit.

Roark was picked up by his father, Rose said, and taken elsewhere.

There is evidence the two had consumed at least some alcohol the night of the fire. Rose there were two cases of beer at the house, but that only six or seven cans were empty.

Fire officials cite possible impairment by alcohol or drugs as a contributing factor to the fire.

Rose said more than likely, the fire started near a radiator style space heater that was located near a wall shared by the bedroom and living room of the apartment.

"Everything was completely gone. The whole roof was gone. You couldn’t tell anything," Rose said. "The heater was on that wall there and the studs from that wall between the bedroom and living room were the only ones completely burned through."

Rose said he is not yet sure if arson investigators from the State Fire Marshall’s office will be contacted to assist in the investigation.

Fire officials are considering the property a complete loss, valuing damage at $80,000. McDonald said it is not livable in its current condition.

According to the Fire Department’s report of the blaze, the home did not have any smoke detectors. It is owned by Renee Elliott.