Family man tried to save son in fire

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate Florida parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 26, 2008 - Page: 2B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A weekend trip to see relatives in rural St. Tammany Parish turned into a family tragedy early Sunday morning when a Baton Rouge man and his 3-year-old son died in an accidental house fire.

Andrew D. Crawford, 40, a Baton Rouge mortgage broker, was a family man whose two sons were everything in his life, said William Crawford, Andrew Crawford’s father, on Tuesday.

“They were over there for the weekend just to enjoy a time in the country,” added William Crawford, a professor at the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center and director of the Louisiana Law Institute since 1978.

Andrew Crawford, 2025 Cherrydale Ave., Baton Rouge, was a graduate of University Lab School and LSU.

Crawford went back into the burning house to rescue his son, Brandon William Crawford, 3, from the blaze, state Fire Marshal H. “Butch” Browning Jr. said in a statement.

The boy was hiding under a bed and did not get out of the burning house with everyone else, state fire investigators and William Crawford said.

Neither Andrew nor Brandon Crawford escaped the house at 73212 Military Road, Covington, and both died, overcome by smoke and trapped by the fire, investigators said.

The house in which the father and son died is in a rural area of the parish without hydrants, along La. 21 northeast of Covington.

The chief of St. Tammany Parish Fire Protection District No. 12, Darrell Guilott, said his department is prepared to fight fires in such areas and sends in multiple engines and tankers loaded with water.

He said that during the first few minutes of the fire, which started shortly before 2:36 a.m. Sunday, the department had 9,000 gallons of water on the scene. He said when firefighters arrived, 80 percent of the house was involved.

Investigators said the house did not have smoke detectors, limiting early warning.

Investigators believe the blaze started under a patio, either from an outdoor wood-burning chiminea or patio lights.

Three others were injured in the fire, fire investigators said.