March 13, 2006

Woman dies of burns

       A Center Grove area woman died hours after suffering severe burns in a house fire.  Fern Carter, 77, 3035 Santiago Drive, Greenwood, sustained third-degree burns over 80 percent of her body during a Saturday morning fire at her home. She was pronounced dead at Wishard Hospital in Indianapolis about midnight.  The cause of death was not available Sunday.  The fire started after Carter, who was connected to an oxygen tank, smoked a cigarette in her bed, firefighters said.  Also, a smoke detector in the home wasn’t working because the batteries had been removed, firefighters said.

         White River Township firefighters Mike Shoemaker, 36, and Jason Tibbetts, 30, were burned trying to rescue Carter. They were treated and released at Wishard, White River Township Battalion Chief Jeff Wilson said.  Shoemaker had second and third-degree burns from the fire, and Tibbetts suffered from first-degree burns and smoke inhalation.

         White River Township firefighters were called to the home in the Eldorado I subdivision in Greenwood at 8:56 a.m. after getting a report of people trapped in a house fire.  Johnson County Sheriff’s officers told the firefighters that Carter was trapped in her bedroom.  Tibbetts and Shoemaker broke through a bedroom window and balcony door to get into the room.  When they entered the room, fire was climbing up the walls and onto the ceiling. A dresser and a credenza were also on fire, they said.  The firefighters had a hard time seeing what was in the room because it was cluttered and filled with smoke, Tibbetts said.  The credenza was blocking the door to the balcony, so Tibbetts started pulling out drawers to try to move the furniture and clear a way into the room.  Shoemaker found Carter curled up in a ball on the floor near the bedroom door, calling for help.  He grabbed her under the shoulders and Tibbetts carried Carter’s legs as they took her through the balcony and down some stairs to get her out of the house.  “I could feel I was being burned, but I had her in my arms and I was going to get us both out,” Shoemaker said.  The fire was so hot that it scorched Shoemaker’s jacket and melted his helmet and the face piece on his air mask, he said. Tibbetts’ helmet and radio were also melted by the fire.  Tibbetts said they were in the room for about three to four minutes.  “It seemed like an eternity,” Tibbetts said.  Carter was conscious and talking when she was taken to the ambulance, Wilson said.

         The incident was the second oxygen fire in one week, after another woman was severely burned Wednesday in the Cambridge Square Apartments on Southbridge Circle.  If smoke detectors would have been working at Carter’s home, someone may have noticed the fire sooner, Tibbetts said.  Carter’s daughter-in-law, Beverly Carter, 51, and granddaughter, Skylen Shivers, 9, were in the home when the fire started.  Beverly Carter and Shivers complained of shortness of breath, symptoms typical of smoke inhalation, Wilson said. They refused to be taken to the hospital.  The pair discovered the fire after they heard Fern Carter yelling for help, Wilson said. They were unable to get her out of the bedroom.  While it was pouring rain, Shivers ran across the street barefoot in her pajamas to call 911, neighbor Marty Baron said.  Dispatchers told Baron that they had already been called about the fire, he said.  Other neighbors said they didn’t notice anything was wrong with the home until they saw several fire trucks and sheriff’s cars pull in front of the house.  “All of the sudden, you saw smoke everywhere,” neighbor Nancy Coram said.  Thirty-eight firefighters responded to the call from Greenwood, Bargersville and White River Township fire departments, Wilson said. He said that usually more firefighters will respond to a call when they hear that people could be trapped in a home.  The fire destroyed the bedroom and hallway and caused some smoke damage to the living room of the home, he said.  See related stories HERE and HERE.  (Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal)

 
    

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