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Mother's attempt fails to save son

Her 2-year-old dies in his bedroom as four family members escape.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published November 28, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Lesley Gray emerged from her flaming home frantic, her fingers burned black, and her 2-year-old son still inside.

While three other family members escaped to the lawn, Gray had raced to retrieve her child from his burning bedroom. But smoke and flames drove her out.

"She came out and just kept screaming, "Get my baby out! Get my baby out," said Cecil Clark, a family friend who arrived on the scene Sunday morning after smelling smoke from a couple of blocks away.

By the time firefighters arrived and subdued the flames in the bedroom, Bradley Gray, who turned 2 in April, was dead, authorities said.

Lesley Gray had been asleep on a living room sofa about 9 a.m. Sunday morning when her 4-year-old, Jeremy, came out of his bedroom screaming, said Lt. Rick Feinberg of St. Petersburg Fire Rescue.

She quickly ran to get Bradley and found the bedroom door closed, Feinberg said.

"As soon as she opened the door, she was hit, burned from her head and all the way down her arms," said Feinberg.

Despite being badly burned, Lesley Gray went to a second bedroom, where her father and brother were sleeping, Feinberg said. It was unclear if she made another attempt to get into Bradley's bedroom, he said.

She may have had a better chance if she had crawled in under the flames, but given the intensity of the fire by then, even this would have been unlikely, Feinberg said.

Lesley Gray, 25, was flown by helicopter to the burn center at Tampa General Hospital, where she was in stable condition after surgery on Sunday.

The other three people in the house, James Gray Sr., 52, James Gray Jr., 15, and Lesley Gray's 4-year old, Jeremy, were all treated for smoke inhalation at Bayfront Medical Center and released Sunday afternoon.

Before investigators make a final determination about the cause of the fire, they need to reinterview Jeremy, who was in the bedroom with Bradley when the fire started, Feinberg said.

Relatives said Sunday that no one in the family smoked and using candles was unlikely with two young boys running around.

Lesley Gray is a fiercely protective mother, they said.

"The skin on her face was melted, her legs were melted," said Linda Shupe, Lesley Gray's aunt, who lives two blocks away. "I know she must have been fighting the fire, trying to get to him."

A neighbor, Arthur L. Office, also tried to get to the bedroom of the white clapboard duplex at 727 36th Avenue S. But Office, too, had to retreat.

Office's wife said he does not know the Gray family. He was just driving by and heard screams, authorities said. He pulled over and ran into the blaze consuming the second floor of the duplex.

Shupe said that Lesley Gray was raised in St. Petersburg and works as a cashier at a Publix supermarket. She said Bradley and Jeremy were great kids but could be a handful for the single mom.

Jeremy was especially upset Sunday, witnesses said.

"He got out of there in a hurry and was just saying "I want my little brother, I want my little brother. He's in the bedroom,"' said Cecil Clark.

Feinberg said two factors likely made the fire fatal, the lack of smoke alarms and delayed calls to 911.

"I think there's a good chance a smoke alarm would have woken someone up or gotten their attention sooner," he said.

Feinberg said the first call to 911 was placed at 8:54 a.m., from neighbors several houses away, at 768 36th Ave. S.

People in crisis can panic and assume someone else has called 911, Feinberg said. "We believe there was a bit of a delay," he said.

Today, fire officials will go house to house around the neighborhood, telling people about the fire on Sunday and installing smoke detectors in houses where they are needed.

[Last modified November 28, 2005, 01:04:15]