San Diego

A 54-year-old County Jail inmate died Thursday night after breathing in fumes from a fire he set, sheriff’s deputies said.

Billy O’Neil Radford lay next to plastic trash bags that he set on fire at 10 p.m. on the second floor of the downtown jail and breathed in the smoke and fumes, deputies said. He was close enough to the fire that the flames singed his hair.

After the jail’s medical staff examined him before transporting him to the county mental health facility, he lost consciousness, official said. Radford was taken to San Diego Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

According to authorities, Radford had cut his wrists earlier this year. He was serving time for being under the influence of heroin.

The exact cause of his death will not be determined until an autopsy is performed, officials said.