Unless he had an accomplice, Ted. Also, whether with someone else's help or on one's own, to do what he did, or had done for him, in a multi-unit building, is highly irresponsible, shows lack of regard for the safety others. I read that the woman who lived upstairs from him had to be treated for smoke inhalation. Fortunately, the fire itself didn't spread. In some of his last film reviews and apparently in some of his correspondences with others Fergus referred to the fragility, flammability, of nitrate film. You'd know more about this particular topic than I do. His last movie review on the IMDB is literally a farewell review, which suggests, retrospectively, that he was saying goodbye to more than that website.



That's a lousy way to go, raises questions as regards to the man's sanity. Brain chemistry issues? Possibly early stage Alzheimer's? If he had been on meds he maybe had stopped taking them; or possibly he switched meds and was having a bad reaction. SSRI's, drugs in the Prozac class, have been known to have a paradoxical effect, and this may have been the case with Fergus. As to his age, he may well have been only in his early sixties. I've since read that his having been relocated to Australia as a child occurred after the world war, not on account of it. Yet in his writing his references to having worked for large media conglomerates in the 60s suggests that he was either older than he said or a highly precocious youth.

In any event, Mr. MacIntyre was somewhat of a mystery man, deliberately lied about, obfuscated or made up stories about his life. We'll probably never learn the real truth about how and why he died any more than we'll know the truth of how and why he lived.