Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s death was caused by complications of smoke inhalation, medical examiners determined Monday, three days after he died at the hospital following injuries sustained in a house fire in Connecticut earlier this month.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Hsieh’s death has been ruled an accident.
Hsieh’s death on Friday was confirmed by DTP Companies, an organization that he launched with the goal of revitalizing the urban center of Las Vegas. A spokeswoman said the Nov. 18 fire occurred at a home in New London.
New London Fire Chief Thomas Curcio told the Courant there was only one fire with injuries in New London on Nov. 18, at a home at 500 Pequot Ave. On Monday, city police confirmed the man injured in the fire was Hsieh. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Curcio said firefighters were called to a fire at the home at about 3:30 a.m. and told a person was trapped inside. All the city’s fire companies responded, the victim was pulled from the home and CPR was administered.
First responders initially took Hsieh to Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, Curcio said, but he was later transferred by Life Star helicopter to Bridgeport Hospital, home of the Connecticut Burn Center.
First responders arriving to the scene say a person was trapped in the fire, according to emergency radio transmissions archived by Broadcastify.com. The fire appeared to be in the basement of the home.
People at the home told firefighters that Hsieh was locked in a storage area with smoke coming out of it and they were not able to get him out, according to police. Firefighters forced their way in and found Hsieh.
Minutes after firefighters arrived, they radioed that they were pulling an unresponsive victim from the fire, according to the emergency radio transmissions. The fire was then reported to be knocked down.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the New London fire marshal, according to city officials.
Records show the home was purchased in August by Rachael Brown. A woman with that name has been a longtime Zappos employee, starting with the company in 2004 when it was just 100 people.
Brown is a native of Connecticut and a close associate of Hsieh’s, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The newspaper also said she is a prominent cellist in several Las Vegas-based bands.
Hsieh was with his brother in Connecticut when the fire broke out, according to TechCrunch. The Associated Press reported that he was surrounded by family when he died last week.
Hsieh ran Zappos, a massive online shoe retailer, for nearly two decades before retiring earlier this year after joining the startup in 1999. Ten years after Hsieh joined Zappos, the company was sold to Amazon for $1.2 billion, but he stayed on to run the company for another decade.
News of Hsieh’s death was met with an outpouring on social media from top technology and business leaders.
“Your curiosity, vision, and relentless focus on customers leave an indelible mark. You will be missed by so many, Tony. Rest In Peace,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote on Instagram.
Hsieh was known for unorthodox approaches while at Zappos, including decentralizing the management of company, which led to the removal of manager positions and job titles. He later shifted away from this to a model in which teams operated as separate business units, according to Quartz.
Hsieh’s legacy extended to the revitalization of Las Vegas, where he moved the company’s headquarters and lived in recent years.
“Tony Hsieh played a pivotal role in helping transform Downtown Las Vegas,” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak wrote on Twitter.
Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.
Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com.
