Tony Hsieh’s Fatal Night: An Argument, Drugs, a Locked Door and Sudden Fire

Tony Hsieh, who developed Zappos right into a billion-dollar web shoe retailer and formulated an influential principle about company happiness, intentionally locked himself in a shed moments earlier than it was consumed by the fireplace that will kill him.

Final November, Mr. Hsieh was visiting his girlfriend, Rachael Brown, in her new $1.3 million riverfront home in New London, Conn. After the couple had an argument concerning the messiness of the home, Mr. Hsieh arrange camp within the connected pool storage shed, which was full of froth pool noodles and seashore chairs.

These particulars appeared in stories launched Tuesday by New London hearth and police investigators, the primary regulation enforcement accounts of the incident. They mentioned Mr. Hsieh might be seen on a safety video from Nov. 18 searching the shed door about 3 a.m., despite the fact that nobody was about. Gentle smoke rose behind him.

When Mr. Hsieh closed the door, there was the sound of the door lock latching and a deadbolt being drawn.

The entrepreneur, 46, was touring with a nurse. He deliberate to depart earlier than daybreak for Hawaii with Ms. Brown, his brother Andrew, and a number of other mates and staff, in line with the police report. Whereas within the shed, he requested to be checked on each 10 minutes. His nurse, who was staying in a resort, mentioned this was customary process with Mr. Hsieh.

Investigators mentioned they didn’t know precisely what had began the fireplace, partly as a result of there have been too many potentialities. Mr. Hsieh had partly disassembled a conveyable propane heater. Discarded cigarettes have been discovered. Or possibly the blaze erupted from candles. Investigators mentioned his mates had instructed them that Mr. Hsieh appreciated candles as a result of they “reminded him of an easier time” in his life.

A fourth risk is that Mr. Hsieh did it on objective.

“It’s attainable that carelessness and even an intentional act by Hsieh might have began this hearth,” the fireplace report mentioned. The report added that Mr. Hsieh may additionally have been intoxicated, noting the presence of a number of Whip-It model nitrous oxide chargers, a marijuana pipe and Fernet-Branca liqueur bottles.

The precise function of medicine or alcohol that evening is prone to stay unclear. Dr. James Gill, Connecticut’s chief medical expert, mentioned in an e mail that “post-mortem toxicology testing just isn’t helpful” if the sufferer survives for an prolonged interval. A remaining report is pending.

Firefighters who broke down the door discovered Mr. Hsieh mendacity on a blanket. He was taken to a close-by hospital after which airlifted to the Connecticut Burn Middle, the place he died on Nov. 27 of issues from smoke inhalation.

Mr. Hsieh’s dying shocked the tech and entrepreneurial worlds due to his relative youth and his writing on company happiness. Zappos was a star of the early shopper web, serving to persuade the cautious that purchasing on-line held few perils. Mr. Hsieh grew to become chief govt in 2001, selling to all who would pay attention the notion that firms ought to attempt to make their prospects in addition to their staff blissful. He relocated Zappos from the Bay Space to Las Vegas.

Amazon purchased Zappos for $1.2 billion in 2009. The following yr, Mr. Hsieh printed “Delivering Happiness,” a greatest vendor. “Our aim at Zappos is for our staff to consider their work not as a job or profession, however as a calling,” he wrote.

Mr. Hsieh remained at Zappos however turned his consideration to a civic undertaking to revitalize downtown Las Vegas. Many investments and a few years later, the undertaking was at greatest an incomplete success. Within the final yr or so, Mr. Hsieh focused on Park Metropolis, Utah, the place he spent tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} shopping for properties and have become so manic that mates mentioned they’d mentioned an intervention. Few outsiders knew that he had quietly left Zappos.

On the evening of the fireplace, in line with police interviews, Mr. Hsieh was despondent over the dying of his canine the earlier week throughout a visit to Puerto Rico. He and Ms. Brown had a disagreement that escalated, at which level Mr. Hsieh retired to the shed. An assistant checked with him regularly, logging the visits with Submit-it notes on the door. Mr. Hsieh would usually sign that he was OK.

Because the group ready to depart in the course of the evening for the airport, Mr. Hsieh requested for the check-ins to be each 5 minutes. However 4 minutes have been all it took for the fireplace to develop into lethal. Makes an attempt by these in the home to interrupt down the locked door have been unsuccessful. Three Mercedes-Benz passenger vans arrived to take the get together to the airport about the identical time that firefighters arrived.

Ms. Brown, an early Zappos worker, didn’t return requires remark. A household spokesman additionally didn’t reply to a message for remark.

Firefighters have been common guests to the home in mid-November. On Nov. 16, they have been summoned at 1 a.m. by a smoke detector that was wired right into a safety firm. A person who answered the door mentioned the alarm had been set off by cooking, in line with division information.

The firefighters left however returned minutes later, prompted by one other smoke detector. “On arrival discovered nothing exhibiting and a male stating once more that there was no drawback,” Lt. Timothy O’Reilly wrote in a abstract of the decision. Firefighters mentioned they’d entered to have a look round.

Lieutenant O’Reilly and his colleagues discovered smoke within the completed basement, together with “melted plastic gadgets on the stovetop together with cardboard that was scorching to the contact,” which have been apparently plastic utensils and plates. In addition they discovered a candle burning in “an unsafe location” and extinguished it. Whereas the smoke within the basement dissipated, the firefighters supplied hearth security suggestions.

The investigators’ report additionally recounted an episode early within the night of Nov. 18. Mr. Hsieh’s assistant checked on him within the shed and observed a candle had fallen over and was burning a blanket. The assistant requested Mr. Hsieh to place out the flame, and the entrepreneur did.