A woman killed in a Battle Creek (MI) house fire on Monday had little chance of survival, according to the assessment of a local fire inspector.
A report from the Battle Creek Enquirer (http://bcene.ws/yTCULS) said that firefighters responded to call around 1:30 a.m. Monday to find much of the rear of the two-story frame home in question engulfed in flames. The female victim was found on the floor next to her bed on the first floor.
The fire likely was burning 20 minutes before smoke in an upstairs bedroom woke the victim’s aunt and uncle, who opened a window and went downstairs only to encounter a significant smoke condition. The couple was driven out the home’s front door.
Family members told the paper that they tried to direct firefighters to the victim’s bedroom. The local fire inspector said firefighters were driven back twice in a hallway and it likely wouldn’t have mattered, as the fire was well involved before the call even came in. The inspector said the victim would not have been able to survive in the involved room because of the amount of heat and smoke in the room, which had filled it below the level of the bed.
The fire may have been electrical in origin, and the inspector found a lightweight electrical cord that had been used to power multiple appliances.
The house had smoke detectors, but the batteries had recently died.
