VIDALIA, La. — Thick smoke and unfamiliar surroundings may have led to the death of a Winnsboro man in an early morning fire on Saturday. William Walker Rials, 20, was one of eight young adults — age 17 to 21 — who were in the house at 321 Terry Circle when it caught fire at about 6:15 a.m. Saturday.

&uot;The first person we saw was a neighbor, who said he thought everybody was out of the house,&uot; said Concordia Fire District No. 2 Chief Nolen Cothren. &uot;We didn’t realize anyone was in there until they found&uot; Rials near a utility room.

&uot;I figure he got disoriented, mixed up and twisted around,&uot; Cothren said. &uot;It looked like he had been overcome by the smoke.&uot;

Apparently, Chad, 20, and Tabitha Windham, 17, and six of their friends had returned to the Windham house after attending a concert in Baton Rouge late Friday night. The Windhams’ parents, James and Susan, were out of town.

The &uot;hot spot&uot; of the fire was centered on the couch in the living room where Rials and another boy had been sleeping, said Jimmy Darden, an investigator with the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Department. He said a cigarette may have ignited the cushions.

&uot;One of the boys woke up, got Will Rials up and tried to put out the fire. When they realized they couldn’t do it, they got the rest of them out,&uot; Darden said. &uot;I don’t know what woke that one boy up, because the smoke can take you into a deeper sleep.&uot;

Cothren said sofa cushions can contain an oil-based matter that creates thick smoke when ignited. &uot;When I drove up, I couldn’t even see the house for the smoke,&uot; he said.

Both Windham children were treated for smoke inhalation and burns and then released from Natchez Regional Medical Center. Cothren said no one else was injured.

Rials was on active duty with the U.S. Army at Fort Hood, Texas. He was a 1997 graduate of Vidalia High School. Funeral arrangements for Rials were incomplete at Comer Funeral Home Saturday.