Apartment fire kills Scott: Grease fire blamed for 82-year-old’s death
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The victim, Gertrude Scott, 82, died at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville from injuries she sustained in the early evening fire inside the kitchen of her apartment.
According to Sheriff Jackie Matheny, the fire was reported by neighbors just after 5 p.m. after they saw smoke drifting into their next-door apartment. Knowing an elderly woman resided there, one neighbor forced his way into a rear door and attempted to pull her from the blaze but was rebuffed by the flames and thick smoke.
Deputy Ramsey Womack, who made it to the scene three minutes after the call was dispatched, also ran into the burning apartment in an attempt to pull the woman from the flames.
“As soon as I walked in I couldn’t breathe,” Womack said, still wiping the burning smoke from his eyes. “I tried covering my mouth but I’d already taken in a lung full of smoke. It was hard to see with all the smoke, but I tried to pull her out. This is just horrible.”
Fire units from North Warren Fire Department, spurred on my Womack’s frantic radio call for help, arrived minutes later to extinguish the fire and rush the severely burned victim to an awaiting ambulance. She was airlifted to Vanderbilt from River Park Hospital by LifeFlight helicopter.
According to Sheriff Matheny, investigators believe the fire started in the kitchen as the result of a grease fire. Damage in the apartment was focused on the kitchen section.
Fire statistics
• Eighty percent of all fire deaths occur in the home.
• Senior citizens and children under-5 have the greatest risk of fire death.
• Cooking is the leading cause of home fires in the U.S. It is also the leading cause of fire injuries.
• Nearly half the residential fires and 60 percent of residential fatalities occur in homes with no smoke alarms.
– Source: U.S. Fire Administration