• A lethal hold on Maine
• Coffee brandy ranks as state's drug of choice
• A history of alcohol
• Alcohol's effects on the body
• How reporters researched and wrote this series
• Alcohol-related deaths in 1991

Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Campbell removes equipment from the scene of a mobile home fire that killed 33-year-old Joseph Levesque and his two sons - Joseph, 5, and 2-year-old Dustin - in Millinocket on Jan. 31. The elder Levesque's blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent. ''If their parents are impaired in a fire, these kids don't have a chance,'' says James Ellis, a fire investigator with the state Fire Marshal's Office. Associated Press file photo by Joel A. Page

Kevin Killam's body lay by the door inside the charred 12-by-7-foot camper.

At first, fire investigators were stymied. How could someone fail to escape a fire in such a tiny space?

As they collected evidence on the March fire in Troy, the reason became clear. Killam, 35, had drunk enough to put himself in a coma.

Killam had spent much of the day and night drinking beer and smoking cigarettes inside the trailer with friends. Sometime after midnight, a discarded cigarette ignited the camper. Killam's nephew, also asleep in the trailer, escaped.

Killam may have never even realized a fire raged around him. His blood-alcohol level was 0.34 percent, more than four times the state's legal driving limit.

''He was so drunk he probably never even moved,'' said James Ellis, an investigator with the state Fire Marshal's Office. ''A lot of the time, you've only got seconds to get out of a house fire, and if you've been drinking it's going to slow you down and maybe even kill you.''

On average, half of the people who die in fatal fires in Maine don't escape because they're too drunk to get out of their burning homes. The Sunday Telegram and Press Herald reviewed five years of fatal fires between 1992 and 1996. During that time, 41 adults and one child died in fires started by someone who was intoxicated.

Nationally, there are no statistics comparing states and their alcohol-related fatal fires. But Ladd Alcott, the state's acting fire marshal, believes alcohol plays a role in an unusually high number of fatal fires in Maine.

''Over half the folks in these fires have been drinking,'' Alcott said. ''I'd say that's quite a trend. A lot of these people get snookered in their homes and get careless.''

Russell Wilson's death still amazes the investigators who pieced together the final moments of his life. Wilson lived in a shanty behind Commercial Street in Portland. He dropped a cigarette on his mattress and fell asleep one morning in August 1993.

Flames eventually caught his boot on fire. They burned through his shoe and his clothes before Wilson, 56, woke up.

''We couldn't believe he was so drunk that he couldn't feel his boot burning,'' said Daniel Young, an investigator with the Portland police. ''It took him a long time to wake up. And then by the time he did, it was too late.''

Young later learned why Wilson was numb to the flames licking at his feet. His blood-alcohol level was 0.43 percent.

A common theme: careless smoking

Diane Peach of Gray fell asleep on her couch one May evening in 1993. The fire alarm in Peach's mobile home sounded at 7 a.m., waking her 13-year-old grandson. The boy called nearby relatives. He yelled to Peach, trying to get her out of the fire. She never responded. By the time firefighters arrived, flames engulfed the trailer.

Investigators later learned that Peach's blood-alcohol content was 0.34 percent. Like Killam, she had been drinking and smoking. She dropped a cigarette in the couch, where it smoldered and eventually ignited a fire.

''Unfortunately, the cause of a lot of these fires is tragically simple,'' said Stewart Jacobs, a fire investigator covering northern Maine. ''When people are intoxicated and smoking cigarettes, they get careless.''

Sandra and Robert Erwin died as a result of a cigarette tossed in a wastebasket in their bathroom.

The Erwins lived in the upstairs apartment of a two-family home in Augusta. The fire began about 2 a.m. on a February morning in 1994. Though the fire didn't spread beyond the bathroom, it filled the apartment with thick smoke. Firefighters found the body of Sandra Erwin, 49, in the kitchen, and her 59-year-old husband in the living room. They also discovered numerous empty beer cans by the living room sofa.

Tests determined they'd both been drinking. Her blood-alcohol level was 0.10 percent; his was 0.13.

Smoke is usually the culprit that overwhelms fire victims like the Erwins. When a fire burns, carbon monoxide is released. Depending on the size of the home and the amount of smoke, a victim may have only minutes to escape before the toxic gas overcomes them.

''When someone breathes those gases they lose their balance and get very disoriented,'' said fire investigator Rick Shepard. ''And if someone has been drinking alcohol on top of that, they're going to be even more confused. Their chances of getting out are slim to none.''

Judgment, coordination quickly lost

''Though the state's legal blood-alcohol driving limit is 0.08, a lot of people actually become impaired at 0.04,'' David said. ''The bottom line is that alcohol depresses all brain function and in a fire the reduction of judgment, sensory input and coordination can be lethal.''

The more alcohol consumed, the greater the chance that the victim won't even wake from sleep. Like Killam, intoxicated fire victims are often found in or near their beds, or in the chair or couch they passed out on.

''You get to these scenes and say, 'Why didn't this person get out of this fire?' '' Ellis said. ''Why didn't they move from their bed or chair? And then you learn the blood alcohol and that explains everything. They were in a stupor.''

When people are drinking they're also more apt to set themselves on fire while they're cooking or lighting kerosene heaters.

Two brothers, Kern and Freeman Robinson, weren't thinking clearly the frigid winter afternoon they set themselves on fire on Vinalhaven.

They spent most of Jan. 30, 1993, drinking 100-proof vodka. Late in the day, they stood outside a fish camp and tried to light a kerosene heater. His hands unsteady from drinking, Freeman Robinson, 55, spilled fuel on the burner as he filled the heater with kerosene.

Robinson's wife, Lauretta, sitting in a nearby car, watched as her husband lit a match. She heard a ''whoosh.''

She watched as flames leaped from the burner, igniting Robinson's clothes. Kern Robinson, 48, tried to help his brother put the fire out but set his own nylon parka on fire instead.

Both men died of burns that covered more than 80 percent of their bodies. Freeman Robinson's blood-alcohol level was 0.20. Kern Robinson's blood was never tested since he was rushed to a local hospital for treatment.

''They were doing something that ordinarily isn't a dangerous task,'' said Steven Dixon, who investigated the fire. ''But because they were drinking their sensibility was absent. And the consequences were terrible.''

Simplest tasks can end in death

Brooks, 63, set herself on fire while heating spaghetti on the stove of her Brewer home in July 1993. Firefighters arrived at her apartment after neighbors reported a buzzing smoke detector alarm. Brooks was found in the bathtub, her face, arms, legs burned. Investigators believed she sought relief in the tub, hoping to cool her burns.

Her family told investigators that Brooks tended to drink heavily and misuse her medications. They had been concerned that she would one day hurt herself in an accident. Her blood-alcohol level that night was 0.11 percent.

Like Brooks' family, many relatives aren't surprised when a relative who smokes and drinks heavily dies in a fire.

Sheila Bean often drank vodka and smoked cigarettes in her Howland home. A fire broke out in her kitchen just after 6 p.m. one June evening in 1995. Firefighters found Bean on her bedroom floor. A partially consumed half-gallon of vodka chilled in her kitchen freezer. Fire investigators believe a cigarette dropped in a stuffed kitchen chair started the blaze.

Family members told investigators that they had expected some sort of tragedy to befall Bean because of her excessive drinking and smoking. The night of the fire, investigators believe Bean was confused and unable to escape because she had drunk so much. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.37 percent.

Fire claims the innnocent too

''If their parents are impaired in a fire, these kids don't have a chance,'' investigator Ellis said.

Last January, Ellis was called out of bed for a fatal fire in Millinocket. It claimed the lives of two preschool boys and their father. The fire began just before 3 a.m. near the living room couch where Joseph Levesque, 33, had been drinking beer and smoking cigarettes earlier in the evening. His wife, Laurie Levesque, woke when she heard him yelling: ''Get out. The trailer's on fire.'' She ran out the back door and saw a glow in the living room.

She tried to get back in when she realized her two sons, Joseph, 5, and Dustin, 2, were still inside. But smoke overcame her. Unable to escape, her husband and two children died in the fire. A few hours later, Ellis interviewed Laurie Levesque, 28, at the hospital. He noted a strong odor of alcohol on her breath. She explained that she and her husband had drunk a six-pack apiece that night. His blood-alcohol level was 0.13 percent.

''It's tough, you get a whiff of someone's breath and smell alcohol,'' Ellis said. ''You say to yourself, 'Here we go again.' The names and places change. But the story remains the same. They've usually been drinking.''

Two years earlier, Ellis and other investigators handled another fire in which a child died. The blaze again broke out in a trailer. Temperatures hovered near zero the January night Raymond Bell, his girlfriend, brother and his brother's girlfriend sat in a Hermon trailer drinking coffee-flavored brandy. They each had at least four drinks before Bell, 25, and his son Brent Giles, 8, went to bed.

Just before 1 a.m., Bell's brother Steven Bell, 29, and his girlfriend, Pamela Blackwell, 27, began arguing. In the middle of the fight, Bell accidentally kicked over the kerosene heater in the living room, catching the couch on fire. After trying unsuccessfully to put it out, he, the two women in the trailer and a 5-year-old girl ran outside. Raymond Bell never stirred from his bed. His blood-alcohol was 0.21 percent. His 8-year-old son was found in the bedroom closet.

''The poor kid was trying to escape,'' Ellis said. ''Can you imagine what's going on in these little kids' minds when they're trapped?''

Like many states, Maine warns its schoolchildren and citizens to check their smoke detectors to make sure they're working. They're urged to know how to get out of their homes safely in case of a fire. But rarely are they cautioned about the dangers of drinking and smoking cigarettes in their homes. Nor are they warned that even a few drinks can drastically reduce their chances of surviving a fire.

''Among the public, alcohol remains an unseen factor in Maine's fires,'' Ellis said.

But investigators like Ellis have grown weary of removing bodies that reek of booze and beer from charred trailers and homes.

''There are always lessons to be learned from fatal fires,'' Ellis said. ''But the most tragic thing is we don't learn from alcohol-related fires. We don't talk about it and we don't try to prevent another one from happening. ''Maybe it's time we started getting the word out.''

Julia McCue, library assistant, contributed research for this article.