The investigation has started to determine what caused a Morristown house to
catch fire, ending with a 10-month-old baby dead.
Just after midnight Sunday morning is when the Brights Pike home went up in flames.
Kayla Anderson lives three houses away with a roommate and said, "We
looked out and the flames were higher than the trees next to the duplex. And
then we heard an explosion, but it wasn't a big boom. It was kind of like a
pow."
Anderson added, "It's awful because my roommate has a two-year-old son
and I love him like he's my own and just to know that somebody lost their child
is devastating."
Morristown firefighters said the infant girl's mother made it out of the
burning home, but was unable to pull her daughter to safety.
Fire Marshal Eual Noah said, "She tried to get the baby out. She tried
twice, but she was overcome with heat and smoke and she just couldn't do
it."
When firefighters rescued the baby girl from the flames she was
unresponsive; however, EMS was able to revive her and emergency crews flew her
to a Georgia hospital where she later died.
Fire Marshal Noah said it's not clear whether there were working smoke
detectors in the home, but now is a good time for everyone to check their own.
"It's very important. You need smoke detectors on each level of your
home, one in each bedroom, and one outside the vicinity of the bedroom,"
Noah said.
Noah also said families should have two escape routes and practice the fire
escapes often.
Anderson said after Sunday's fire she and her roommate took some extra
precautions.
"We've checked to make sure our smoke detectors are working. And we've
talked with Jayden, the two-year-old, about not playing with candles when we
have them lit."
It's not known how long it will take for investigators to determine what
sparked the fatal fire.