Registered Sex Offender Dies In Pollock Pines Fire
POLLOCK PINES (CBS13) — A man was found dead in his mobile home after it caught fire overnight in Pollock Pines, according to the El Dorado County Sheriff's Office.
Firefighters responded to the fire at the Wagon Wheel mobile home park at 24-26 Hub St. just after midnight and, after putting out the blaze, discovered the man dead inside the residence.
The mobile home park manager, Phyllis Rhoden, said the victim was John Patrick Harlan, 69, a registered sex offender who lived at the park with his wife since 2001. The sheriff's office said the man's body was too badly burned to identify him without dental records.
Harlan's wife, Virginia "Dolly" Harlan, woke up and found Harlan trying to put out a fire in a bedroom, according Rhoden.
"She told me this morning that the bed was on fire and he was trying to put it out," Rhoden said. "He got her out the door and went back in."
She said Harlan was probably trying to get a dog out of the mobile home. The couple had three dogs and all three survived, she said. "He loved those dogs," she said.
Harlan's wife banged on a neighbor's home before collapsing outside her home, Rhoden said. She was taken to an area hospital after suffering minor burns and smoke inhalation and released Friday morning.
Harlan was a registered sex offender, according to the Megan's Law website, convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.
Although the official cause of the fire hasn't been released, Rhoden said Harlan often smoked despite being on oxygen and had accidents before mixing the two.
"He was a smoker," she said. "He was on oxygen and smoking at the same time and blew it up (before)," she said. "He sucked burning flames right down his throat. He spent quite a bit of time in the hospital."
She also said she was told he took his oxygen tube off a few days before Thanksgiving and caught his face on fire before extinguishing it with a pillow.
Rhoden said in addition to the extensive damage to Harlan's home, two other units were damaged and fences were burned. No one else was hurt in the blaze, however.
