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House ruined, but woman safe

The Clearwater resident and her family are just thankful that she escaped the fire.

By DEMORRIS A. LEE
Published January 27, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Kathleen Flynn] Emma Dennis, 69, walks through her Clearwater home Friday after it caught fire the night before. A neighbor saw the flames and knocked, waking her.

CLEARWATER - Emma Dennis sat in the front yard of her home Friday afternoon, lucky to be alive.

The night before, after Dennis, 69, fell asleep in her front room while watching television, flames tore through her roof. A neighbor's knocking on her door about 10 p.m. awakened Dennis, alerting her that her home was on fire and allowing her to escape.

"It's just a blessing," Dennis said as she stood outside the white house, 704 Vine St. "Material things, they don't matter, and at this point, you can't cry over spilled milk."

Clearwater Fire & Rescue responded to the fire at 10:14 p.m. Thursday. When firefighters arrived, flames were showing through the roof. It took 55 minutes to bring the fire under control.

No one was injured.

Paul Cooper, who lives at Eldridge and Vine streets, said he was getting ready for bed when he went to the kitchen to throw something away.

"That's when I saw the flames," Cooper said Friday. "They had to be 20 to 30 feet in the air."

Cooper said he grabbed the phone to call 911 but realized he didn't know the address, so he ran outside.

"I banged on the door to see if anyone was home," Cooper said. "She answered. She was very calm, calmer than I was.

"Her main concern was she needed her purse and her shoes. It happened so fast. I'm just glad nobody got hurt, and she got out safely."

Investigators said the fire was electrical and began in the attic. Damage was estimated at $150,000, and the home is a total loss with the majority of the roof gone.

Dennis had finished paying for the home and was waiting for an insurance adjuster to arrive Friday.

Walking through the soot-filled house, Dennis saw that nearly all of her possessions were soaked or covered in soot. The burgundy curtains that hung over the kitchen sink were ruined and the bathroom and kitchen destroyed.

Dennis had lived in the house since 1973. She retired four years ago from Clearwater Produce, and, with her children grown, she lived alone.

As Dennis waited with her twin daughters and her son in front of the ruined house Friday afternoon, the family focused on what was saved.

"All that's important right now is that nobody got hurt," Edith Dennis said. "Those things, they can be replaced. We can't replace our mother."

Demorris A. Lee can be reached at 727 445-4174 or dalee@sptimes.com.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 07:25:32]