May 23, 2012
Crying baby alerts family to fire
4-year-old admits setting house on fire
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- UPDATE: Ramona Wise was fast asleep Tuesday morning when flames broke out in the bedroom of one-year-old Caleb and four-year-old Nathan. "I heard him just crying, just terrified crying, and I went in there to his room, and the room was on fire around his bed," she said.
Wise, a single mother of six, says she feared her family wouldn't make it out. "I thought they were going to die. I mean, I was scared." Caleb suffered first degree burns. His 19-year-old brother Chris needed stitches for cuts to his hand.
Fire investigators are not commenting on a possible cause, but an exchange between little Nathan and his granddad reveal how the fire might have started.
Granddad: "Did you set that fire by accident?"
Nathan: "Yes."
Granddad: "You did?"
Nathan: "Yes."
There were no smoke detectors in the home. A dangeous lesson Wise says she has learned firsthand. "Yes, definitely, definitely smoke detectors. I would advise everybody to get smoke detectors in their home."
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- A mother awoke late Tuesday morning to a baby's cries and discovered fire near the infant's crib.
Knoxville firefighters said they were called to the home, 1334 Brookside Ave., shortly after 10:30 a.m. When they arrived the firefighters found everyone had made it out of the building.
The mother had reportedly fallen asleep on the couch when she awoke the baby crying and her four year-old shouting, "the house is on fire!"
When the mother went into the baby's bedroom she saw flames around the crib and the curtains on fire. She called for her older son and his girlfriend to come quickly to help.
He was sent to the hospital after cutting his hands and arms rescuing the baby. The child suffered first degree burns to its back. No other injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
