Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511220097
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
After firefighters caught up with him, they broke the news: His mother, 58-year-old Shirley Bailey, was dead. She'd been overcome by the smoke.
The son broke down in tears and was comforted by others who lived with his mother.
District 2 Fire Chief Jim Patton said it's always hard to tell people their loved ones didn't make it.
Bailey, a stroke victim who neighbors said had trouble getting around, was alone in her second-floor room and apparently knocked a cigarette off an ashtray. It landed under her bed and started the fire, Patton said.
The call went out at 10:18 p.m., and fire trucks were on the scene in three minutes, but the fire had been burning approximately 15 to 20 minutes before it was reported.
Firefighters determined the time frame by examining the degree of damage done to the woman's mattress, he said.
Patton said the fire was put out within minutes and was confined to Bailey's room. There was smoke and water damage to the rest of the second floor. Damage to the two-story wood frame house was estimated at $25,000 to $30,000.
Bailey was the second Roanoke woman to die in a house fire in the last two weeks.
Brenda Mason, 52, died Nov. 10 in her Dundee Avenue Southeast home. A faulty chimney flue was to blame for the fire.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB