Firefighters battle weekend blazes
Published 5:00 am Tuesday, September 8, 2009
A Copiah County woman died Sunday after being pulled from herburning home by her husband Saturday night, while Lawrence Countyalso had two house fires to contend with during the Labor Dayweekend, authorities said.
Copiah County Coroner Ellis Stuart said Judy Parson, 59, ofMartinsville, died Sunday at the University of Mississippi MedicalCenter of smoke inhalation. Her husband, James Ernie Parson, alsosustained smoke inhalation injuries in the fire, Stuart said.Neither of the Parsons were burned.
“They carried her to UMC, where she lived around 12 hours,”Stuart said.
He said Parson will undergo an autopsy today. Her husband wasreleased later on in the weekend, Stuart said.
Stuart said the fire at 1140 Martinsville Road began around10:30 p.m. Saturday. He said he had been told early indicationsseemed to point to a short in the air conditioner in the trailer asthe source of the fire.
Meanwhile in Lawrence County, firefighters with the MonticelloFire Department had their hands full on Monday with two housefires.
Chief Robert Patterson said the first took place about 3:30 p.m.at 1473 Nola Road. The home of Danny Powell was damaged, he said,but it was a good save by members of his department.
“We contained it to one room of the house, basically,” he said,adding that there was smoke damage in other areas of the home, butthe fire damage was not as bad as it could have been.
Monticello fire units stayed on scene until about 5 p.m., hesaid.
The second blaze erupted around 9:30 p.m., Patterson said, atthe home of Al Pennington at 33 Pennington-McGuffee Road.
“It was fully involved when we got there,” Patterson said. “Itwas way out in the county.”
Patterson said the homeowner had told him he was awakened by hissmoke detectors, and by the time he got back from going to hisneighbors’ home to call 911, the house was fully involved.
Firefighters remained on that scene until around 1 a.m. Tuesday.Patterson said Topeka Volunteer Fire Department also assisted inthat fire.
“It was right at the Lincoln County line, and it was where itwas kind of iffy about if it was Topeka’s or ours, so we bothwent,” he said.
The cause of the two fires is still under investigation,Patterson said.
“One of them was in a bedroom and I don’t know what causedthat,” he said. “The other one was fully involved, and the ownerdoesn’t even know what caused it. We’ll have some investigators outthere looking at it.”