Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Woman, 51, dies when cigarette starts fire

By SHANNON COLAVECCHIO-VAN SICKLER
Published April 27, 2005

TAMPA - Fire rescue workers got to Robin Sizemore's tiny stucco house near MacDill Air Force Base five minutes after they got a call reporting smoke puffing out from under the eaves.

It was too late.

Sizemore, 51, was already dead - fatally burned on the living room couch where she lit a cigarette early Tuesday and then fell asleep.

Tampa Fire Rescue investigator Al Alcala said the fire did not spread beyond the living room, where rescue workers found Sizemore's body on the charred couch.

"By the time we arrived, the fire was already out," Alcala said. But the fire had smoldered for "quite awhile," he said, before a neighbor noticed smoke and called Sizemore's husband at work. Sizemore then called 911, Alcala said. The flames and smoke caused moderate damage to the house at 6606 Interbay Blvd.

Tampa police went to the house along with fire investigators, and together they determined there was no foul play involved in Sizemore's death.

"She just fell asleep on the couch with a cigarette," Alcala said.

Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade said a 2004 National Fire Protection Association study found that more Americans die in fires started by improperly discarded cigarettes than by any other cause.

Nationally in 2001, there were 31,200 smoking-material related structure fires, according to the study. The fires resulted in 830 civilian deaths, 1,770 civilian injuries and $386-million in property damage.

The association found that most victims were in the room where the fire started. Often they were asleep, but a significant number were impaired by drugs, alcohol, disability or old age.

Wade said that Robin and Bill Sizemore married in 1989 but have been separated for more than a year. She was living alone in the house they bought together in 1991.

Bill Sizemore's son Scott said his stepmother had not worked in years.

Later Tuesday morning, Bill and Scott Sizemore stood in the front yard and watched as firefighters walked through the living room.

"She was always good to me and my brother," said Scott Sizemore, 31.

He said his father and stepmother used to enjoy playing pool and darts together. They loved to spend time in their backyard pool.

"It was like an oasis," he said.

When Robin Sizemore's body was loaded into a medical examiner van shortly before 10 a.m., Scott Sizemore and his father walked back to the pool so they wouldn't have to see her carried away.

Shannon Colavecchio-Van Sickler can be reached at 813 226-3373 or svansickler@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 27, 2005, 00:47:14]