[03/30/01] A Vicksburg man was in stable condition Friday morning at the Mississippi Firefighters Memorial Burn Center in Greenville after he was burned in a house fire that left two other men homeless early Thursday.

D.C. Hatten, 77, 2520 Halls Ferry Road Apartment 3, was transferred to Greenville later Thursday.

Hatten was injured when his apartment caught fire around 1:47 a.m., Vicksburg Fire Department Investigator Leslie Decareaux said.

She said the fire was determined to be accidental but a cause had not been found.

Although Hatten’s apartment was the only one destroyed, the three other units in the building sustained water and smoke damage, Decareaux said.

“The apartment was cinder block, which is what kept the fire from spreading,” she said.

Local American Red Cross director Oscar Barnes said Hatten’s roommate, 65-year-old Joe Drayton, and another resident Willie Thomas, no age available, have been moved to temporary homes.

“We will provide the motel to them for a couple days until they can find someone to stay with,” Barnes said.

Decareaux said she wasn’t sure when the two men would be able to move back into their home.

“They won’t be able to come back until some repairs have been made,” she said.

Barnes said the Red Cross will see that Thomas and Drayton have a place to live.

“We are going to get these men what they need,” he said.