A motorcyclist died from injuries in an accident Monday afternoon at Highway 48 and Windsor Drive about 1,000 feet north of Durant city limits, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.
Forty-one-year-old Russel Reno of Durant was taken to AllianceHealth after the 1:55 p.m. accident where he was pronounced deceased by medical staff.
According to OHP, Reno was driving a 1999 Harley-Davidson motorcycle when the back wheel locked up for about 150 feet before the bike departed the roadway to the right and Reno was thrown off.
A mechanical defect was cited in the OHP report as the cause of the accident and Reno was not wearing a helmet.
Trooper Christopher Smith investigated. Bryan County EMS, Durant Police Department and Durant Fire Department assisted at the scene.
This is the second fatality involving a motorcyclist recently. On Oct. 17, 64-year-old James Waters of Mead was killed after his cycle struck a car that failed to yield at Highway 70 and Leavenworth Trail Road.
In other news, Durant firefighters were dispatched at 5:22 a.m. to a house fire at 1318. E. Hillcrest Ave. and when they arrived, light smoke was emitting from the eaves and attic vent.
The fire was in the middle of the house, according to the DFD report, and the homeowner said she heard a loud popping noise and then noticed a smoke odor. She then woke up her children and they all exited the house. She also told firefighters she saw an orange glow under the bathroom door that was closed.
Firefighters went inside and noticed the smoke was increasing and the temperature rising. Unable to find the fire at first, they then went outside to the back of the house where flames were coming out of a window, according to the report. Firefighters hosed down the fire and then went back insideto finish putting it out.
Damage was estimated at $53,000 to property with a total value of $115,000. The cause of the fire was undetermined at the time of the report.