Former Zappos chief executive Tony Hsieh locked himself in a backyard shed – surrounded by drink bottles, a marijuana pipe, nitrous oxide cartridges and a whipped cream dispenser – minutes before he was found unconscious by smoke inhalation, according to a fire department report released Tuesday.
The report from the New London Fire Department in Connecticut offers the most extensive account to date of the circumstances of Hsieh’s death last November.
But fire investigators said they were unable to determine whether “an oversight or even an intentional act by Hsieh” could have caused the fire. And they noted that the existence of drugs and alcohol suggests that the 46-year-old businessman may have been weakened or drunk at the time of the fire, which could explain why he did not react when the fire started.
The Connecticut state coroner’s office considered Hsieh’s death accidental. He died of smoke inhalation complications nine days after being removed from the shed.
In the days after Hsieh’s death, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes quoted Hsieh’s friends as saying that he had been in a spiral of alcohol and drugs – including the use of whippets, the inhalation of nitrous oxide cartridges such as found in whipped cream containers.
New London firefighter Vernon Skau, speaking at a news conference on Monday, said Hsieh went to the shed that night after getting into an argument with the home owner, who was identified as a former Zappos executive.
Hsieh was staying at home with his younger brother Andrew and several others, according to the report. They were due to leave early in the morning for a trip to Hawaii, and the owner of the house told Hsieh to leave the property until he left for Maui, the report says.
Hsieh entered the shed just before midnight. Just before 3 am on November 17, one of Hsieh’s friends examined him inside the 300-square-foot shed and noticed that a candle was burning a blanket near Hsieh, the report says.
The friend, Anthony Hebert, asked Hsieh to blow out the candles and he did, says the report.
A security camera captured an argument between Hsieh and Hebert in which Herbert could be heard saying, “You are going to smoke” and “This is poison,” says the report.
Hsieh replied, “It is poisonous, but I used it to light a fire,” according to the report.
The surveillance video showed Hsieh opening the shed door at around 3:15 am. No one was outside, but “occasional light smoke” “was coming out of the door,” according to the report.
“It looks like there was an incipient fire inside the shed at that time,” says the report.
Hsieh tried to close the door, but was unable to close it completely because the pool’s vacuum hose was in the way. He moved a propane heater out of the shed, but brought it back soon after.
The footage from the security camera showed “an increase in the smoke emanating from the shed along with the burning embers,” says the report.
Hsieh, despite the presence of smoke, closed the door. Investigators said they could hear the sound of a lock from inside the shed on the surveillance footage.
At 3:20 am, Hsieh’s brother Andrew knocked on the door and said it was time to go. From inside the shed, Hsieh could be heard on the video telling his brother to come back in five minutes, the report says.
Smoke filled the camera’s view a minute later, followed by the sound of a carbon monoxide alarm in the shed. A minute later, a sound is heard indicating that the relief valve on the propane tank has been “triggered to relieve pressure from inside the tank,” according to the report.
The video shows a dramatic climb in the smoke coming out of the shed and, at 3:24 am, the feed died, the report says.
One of the friends told investigators that he and Andrew returned to the shed at the same time and tried to break down the door.
Firefighters arrived in minutes and forced the door open. Hsieh was found lying face down on a blanket. He was rushed to a nearby hospital and flown to the Connecticut Burn Center, where he died on November 27.
In addition to the drug paraphernalia and bottles of Fernet Branca liquor, firefighters discovered inside the shed several cigarettes thrown out and several candles, the report says.
It is possible that the fire was started by the misuse of candles, a cigarette carelessly discarded or as a result of the portable heater coming into contact with “nearby fuels”, says the report.
Hebert did not respond to a request for comment. A lawyer for Hsieh’s family did not respond to a request for comment.