ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 21, 1996 TAG: 9603210052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
A house fire that seriously injured a Bedford County woman and her 4-year-old granddaughter Tuesday apparently started when the woman's husband tried to light a wood-burning space heater with kerosene.
Bedford County Director of Public Safety Dave Nichols said the fire ignited a can of kerosene Richard Cunningham was holding. Cunningham tried to carry the burning can out of the house, but he had trouble getting the door open and had to set the can down inside because it was burning his hand, Nichols said.
``He then went back to evacuate his family,'' Nichols said. ``But they had to go through the fire to get out of the house because the exit was blocked.''
Cunningham, 42, was listed in stable condition Wednesday at Bedford County Memorial Hospital with burns to his hands and ears, Nichols said.
His wife, Patricia Cunningham, 43, was in critical condition in the burn ward at University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville. Her granddaughter, Mercedes Nelms-Mason, was in serious condition in the hospital's intensive-care unit.
The girl's mother, Annette Nelms, 24, was listed in stable condition Wednesday at Bedford County Memorial.
The Cunninghams' one-story frame house, about nine miles south of Bedford on Virginia 43, was a total loss, with severe damage to its roof and kitchen.
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