Two die in fire after electrical cord for holiday lights ignites rocking chair
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Version 0 of 1. An apartment house fire that caused two deaths in Frederick County, Md. began after an electrical cord supplying power for Christmas lights became entangled in the rocking mechanism of a reclining chair, authorities said. The fire occurred Dec. 7 in an apartment house on West Main Street in Emmitsburg, the county sheriff’s office said. Investigators found that the electrical extension cord failed, and it ignited the bottom of the rocker/recliner, the sheriff’s office said. The fire then spread, and consumed much of a first floor apartment, authorities said. Geraldine Rachelle Jones, 74 who was an occupant of the apartment where the fire broke out died at the scene, authorities said. She and her husband who was critically injured, probably did not know that the extension cord had become entangled, the sheriff’s office said. The husband was identified as Donnie Jones, 69. He was taken to the Shock Trauma Unit at the University of Maryland Hospital where his condition was upgraded to fair, the sheriff’s office said. Diana Lyn Meyer, 43, an occupant of another apartment in the building, died at a hospital in Philadelphia the day after the fire, the sheriff’s office said. Maj. Tim Clarke, of the sheriff’s office said she suffered smoke inhalation in the fire. |