And in other news, yesterday we told you about the tragic death of 62-year-old Merlene Hendy, who perished in a house fire. It occurred Wednesday night around 11:00, and the fire also tore through Hendy's daughter's house, leaving her without a roof over her head.
And while Shantel Hendy was unsure of what started the fire that took her mother's life, the fire department is investigating and they have a preliminary cause. However, according to station supervisor, Kenneth Mortis, the family isn't onboard with it.
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, NFS
"What we came up with the timing that the fire occurred Ms. Hendy was asleep and eventually family members got alerted of such. Some managed to come out of the building unscathed, while Ms. Hendy, she woke up in a bit of a disoriented state and she was overcome by smoke and heat. Unfortunately, for her, she was literally at the exit of the door as to where the investigators found her and that is where we concluded that she probably passed out, became unconscious and then she succumbed as a result of the heat and the smoke inhalation."
Reporter
"The cause of the blaze?"
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, NFS
"We're kind of like leaning towards a candle, as we have learned that the building had no electricity. We did manage to confirm that Ms. Hendy habitually used a candle as a means of light. Unfortunately, at this moment, the family doesn't want to believe that a candle was left in the room. That's what the investigators came up with and that's what we're basically leaning towards."
Reporter
"They're saying that the fire truck was 25 minutes late and on top of that they had to call like 4 times before they got any response."
Kenneth Mortis, Station Supervisor, NFS
"I'll always go back to the one question: who did they call? I mean I've said it time and time again and I'll continue to say it; we are being paid tax payers money to do a job, so we are at a station waiting for an emergency. At 11:15pm what could we have possibly been doing? We don't train at night. I'm not going to go in a debate and say its 25 minutes or not, but my ultimate question would be who did they call and where did the call go from there?"
"The fire department have embarked on a 990 campaign; it takes a lot of memorizing 7 digits. If they still want to go ahead and call 911 within their jurisdiction, then that's on them. But I'll say again, the emergency numbers for all fire departments across the country is 990."
