Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 14, 1995 TAG: 9511140109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Moran said he and his wife were watching a University of Virginia football game about 1:30 p.m. when they noticed flames creeping up the drapes of the house across the street.
He asked his wife to call 911 while he ran to see if anyone was home.
``I opened the front door, and flames came out,'' Moran said. ``I hollered, and I heard her in the background.''
The slight 69-year-old woman weighs 78 pounds and has diabetes and Alzheimer's disease, according to her daughter, Shirley Russell.
Moran left the front door and broke out a window in a side door to enter the house, he said.
``I could hear glass popping and cracking; it was kind of scary,'' Moran said.
Stooping below the smoke to look for Oney, Moran found her on her back in a bathroom doorway. He pulled her from the house and, with the help of a passer-by, carried her to his living room.
Oney still was in Roanoke Memorial Hospital late Monday being treated for smoke inhalation and third-degree burns on her hands and feet. She was listed in stable condition.
She is confused about the fire, according to her daughter.
``She said lightning hit the kitchen,'' Russell said.
But fire investigators pinpointed a cigarette dropped in a chair as the source of the fire.
Oney has lived with her daughter and son-in-law in the house for 15 years. Recently, doctors recommended that she move to a nursing home. Russell had made an appointment for today to look at nursing homes.
Russell said she was out shopping when the fire started. No one else was home.
This is the second time her family has lost everything to a fire; the first time was in 1973, Russell said.
The hardest part now is finding a new home, because Russell and her husband were renting the house on Edison and had no insurance. They are sifting through waterlogged and blackened clothes and furniture to salvage what they can, but expect they will need help from the American Red Cross.
For information on how to make donations for the family, call the Red Cross at 985-3535.
by CNB