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Smoking in bed started fire that killed woman Message about detectors goes out at meeting By JULIE SWENSEN A house fire that killed a Medford woman Monday started because she was smoking in bed, fire officials said Thursday night. Mary Ann Phipps, 77, died of asphyxiation in the blaze at 2049 Amy Street. Her husband, Joe, 82, was in a den two rooms away and was able to stagger out to the garage. He remained in critical condition Thursday night at Providence Medford Medical Center. Their neighbors gathered at Kennedy Elementary School Thursday night to hear from Medford fire officials about what happened, how to cope with grief and how to better protect themselves from fire. "I know that some of you are thinking, `Could I have done something?"' Medford Fire Marshal John Pierce told the neighbors, some of whom helped Joe and tried to rescue Mary Ann. "The answer, based on the facts, is no." The fire in Mary Ann's bedroom burned slowly at first, Pierce said. While there was a smoke alarm in the hallway, it appeared her bedroom door was shut, so smoke would have had to travel under the door before reaching the hallway and the alarm. Investigators don't know whether the smoke detector -- which was wired to the home's electrical system -- was working or if it would have alerted Mary Ann, who was hearing impaired. Pierce said the alarm hadn't been tested in seven years. "She probably went peacefully before the fire got to her," Pierce said. He said the couple could have gotten out if they had had smoke detectors throughout the house. Pierce encouraged people to make an escape plan, get more smoke detectors, check them twice a year, and change the battery when the time changes in spring and fall. He also suggested that people check to see if cords are overheated and if flammable materials are too close to a heat source. He said strobe light smoke detectors are available for hearing-impaired people, and said the best protection is a residential sprinkler system. Neighbor Donna Silva said Mary Ann Phipps was disabled by osteoporosis and watched TV in her bed. She described her late friend as "very sweet." "We kind of adopted them," Silva said of the Phippses, who she described as kind, quiet, generous, thoughtful and never having a bad word for anybody. Silva grew up without grandparents, and she and her son Chris, 23, would take dinner to the couple on Thanksgiving and Christmas, "just to let them know they weren't forgotten." Silva and her son went to the hospital to visit Joe, who is on a ventilator. Silva found that he can nod and is very aware. She told him to fight and that they loved him. She said she will put smoke detectors in every bedroom in her home, put up fire extinguishers and plan an escape route. Another neighbor, Rhonda Coleman, has one smoke detector in her house but plans to add five more. "You don't really think about it until a fire happens really close to your home," Coleman said. Several firefighters attended the meeting. Every time they go into a burning house and search a room and think they find a human being, "their heart goes through their throat," Pierce said. "With a tragedy like this, everybody hurts." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA