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Disabled veteran dies in fire at home
By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- Queen Williams heard her neighbor cry out on Saturday, "Please, help me! Help me!" She looked out and saw a thin line of smoke rising from the neighbor's trailer. She ran to telephone firefighters. In seconds, Williams, 49, heard glass breaking. When she looked back, her neighbor's mobile home was engulfed in flames. The cries quickly ended. "I just wasn't fast enough," Williams said. A 65-year-old disabled veteran living alone was killed by the fire at unit 302 of the Tangerine Mobile Home Park at 21st Street at 16th Avenue S at 12:35 p.m. Firefighters had not notified next of kin and did not immediately release the identity of the victim. Police said the fire appeared to be accidental, but the blaze remained under investigation Saturday evening. About a month ago, doctors amputated the man's left leg above the knee because of circulation problems associated with diabetes, said Leigh Covington, a neighbor and a nurse's assistant at Bayfront Medical Center. The victim's condition forced him to rely on a wheelchair to get around. Covington and other neighbors said the man, who had lived at the park for six months, had repeatedly been hospitalized in recent months. The man smoked heavily and always checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice, Covington said. "He didn't want to stay because he wanted to smoke," she said. "But he couldn't take care of himself. It's really sad."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
