Saturday, October 11, 2008

A 35-year-old Big Coppitt Key man claims he was attacked by three men who lit him on fire as he sat on his porch early Friday, Monroe County Sheriff's Office reports say.

Kirby Smith Irvin of 215 Venus Lane was airlifted to Ryder Trauma Center in Miami from the Shark Channel bridge around 12:35 a.m. with second-degree burns to his chest and abdomen, reports say.

Irvin told deputies he was standing on his back deck after walking home from a Geiger Key bar when he was attacked by three young men who doused him with an accelerant and set him on fire, reports say.

Deputies, however, found no traces of accelerant on the wooden deck, no burns to his blue jean shorts, nor to his face or shoes, reports say. One deputy recommended that "crime scene [investigators] not be called out due to lack of physical evidence," reports say.

Irvin said he tore off his shirt and "tucked and rolled" to extinguish the flames, reports say. A deputy and a family member searched the area for signs of a struggle and for Irvin's shirt, but found neither, reports say.

Irvin told deputies he did not know his attackers, but recognized them as the men who were sitting in the back of a white pickup truck near the Geiger Key bar.

"As he walked by them he said one of them said that they were going to 'get him,'" reports say.

Deputies interviewed people at the bar, all of whom said they had no issues with Irvin and no knowledge of him having issues with anyone else that night, reports say.

Deputies say Irvin, who was being treated by paramedics when they arrived, was intoxicated, reports say.

A family member who was asleep at the residence at the time of the incident reported hearing nothing, as did two neighbors, reports say.

The incident remained under investigation Friday evening.

alinhardt@keysnews.com