Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990                   TAG: 9004010175
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

2-YEAR-OLD INJURED IN FOSTER-HOME FIRE

Nicole Kelly suffered smoke inhalation when she was trapped on the second floor of the home of Bridie W. Spencer. Kelly was in Spencer's foster care.

Before the fire department arrived, a neighbor of Spencer's, 19-year-old Shantell Johnson, spotted the child at a second-floor window. Johnson used a ladder she found nearby to climb to the window. Johnson cut her hand breaking the window to provide the toddler some fresh air to breathe.

The fire department arrived shortly afterwards and rescued the child from the window, witnesses said.

District Fire Chief James Patton said he had determined that a 3-year-old playing with matches had started the fire in a toy box in the basement.

Spencer said she smelled smoke before she was called downstairs by other children in the home. Standing at the top of the basement stairs, she said she could see teddy bears blazing in the toy box.

She thought all of the children were out of the house when one of those outside told her the little girl was still inside, Spencer said. She tried to go back inside but the smoke was too strong, she said.

Patton said he was not able to get an accurate count of exactly how many children were in the house when the fire started. The number was somewhere between four and seven, he said.

Spencer said that besides Kelly, a grandson, another foster child and a foster grandchild were in the house at the time. Spencer, 76, said she has been a foster parent for 35 years.

As she sat on the porch next door, friends and neighbors gathered around Spencer and offered her their help. Patton estimated that smoke and fire damage to the home would total $15,000.