An af­ter­noon fire in Ari­ma on Tues­day claimed the life of an 82-year-old pen­sion­er. Po­lice and fire of­fi­cers were up to late yes­ter­day in­ves­ti­gat­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty that the fire might have been an act of ar­son.

Po­lice said around 3 pm, res­i­dents of Riverview Road, Co­corite Road, re­port­ed see­ing smoke com­ing from the home of the el­der­ly man iden­ti­fied as Dal­ton Kei­th. Fire ten­ders from the Ari­ma Sta­tion ar­rived at the scene short­ly af­ter and were able to put out the fire.

While check­ing the prop­er­ty, fire of­fi­cers found Kei­th's charred re­mains in a bed­room. Po­lice be­lieve he was asleep when the fire start­ed. The re­mains were tak­en to the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre, St James, where an au­top­sy showed he died of smoke in­hala­tion.

Rel­a­tives who lived with Kei­th were not at home at the time of the fire. In­sp Wayne Lawrence and de­tec­tives of the Re­gion Two Homi­cide Bu­reau are prob­ing Kei­th's death.