By KELLI PHILLIPS
Contra Costa Times
The discovery of a woman’s body three weeks after a fire filled her Concord condominium with smoke has prompted an internal investigation at the county’s fire district, a fire official said Tuesday.
Firefighters pried open Carla Garrett’s balcony door to vent smoke from her Ellis Street condo during an Aug. 19 fire, but they may not have searched inside, said Rich Grace, Contra Costa Fire District assistant fire chief.
Police found the 46-year-old woman’s body Sept. 12, prompting the Contra Costa Fire District to begin an internal investigation and to review its policies and procedures, Grace said.
“I can’t stress enough how unusual this is,” he said. “I’ve never heard of anything like this ever happening in my 30 years. We were shocked.”
Two elderly women were rescued during the blaze, but firefighters didn’t know anyone died until police found the body, Grace said.
John Garrett, Carla Garrett’s brother, says his sister lived alone and had been off work for a year after falling down some stairs. The siblings usually talked once a week, but John Garrett knew something was wrong when she didn’t show up to another brother’s court hearing.
“She was supposed to go and if she said she was going to do something, then she did it,” he said. “That’s when I started to look for her.”
He went to the condo where a neighbor told him she thought Carla escaped the fire.
No one realized she was still inside. For 24 days, her body lay in her bedroom unnoticed, wedged in a narrow space between a makeshift table and a closet with a comforter covering most of her body, Grace said.
She appears to have died from smoke inhalation, according to her death certificate, but toxicology and blood tests are pending, a coroner’s deputy said.
The fire, sparked about 7:30 p.m. by a neighbor’s unattended candle, was primarily contained to a second-story storage room, but Grace said Garrett’s apartment sustained heavy smoke and heat damage.
Typically, fire crews conduct a primary search, which Grace said is often done in conjunction with fire suppression activities. “As soon as possible after we gain control of the fire we do a secondary search of an occupancy to attempt to ascertain if anyone is inside,” he said.
During the blaze, firefighters climbed a ladder onto Garrett’s balcony and pried open a sliding glass door, but they had another job to do and “weren’t able to enter the apartment,” Grace said. He doesn’t know if anyone attempted a search once the fire was under control.
“The investigation is still ongoing and it would be premature of me to speculate on what happened and when,” he said.
The fire district is reviewing its policies and procedures to make sure “something like this never happens again,” Grace said. He hoped to complete the investigation by Friday.
John Garrett said his sister was the youngest of 18 children. She was talkative and outgoing and had a 12-year-old son who didn’t live with her.
“I just don’t understand,” said John Garrett. “I think she could have been saved if they had searched the place and I intend to find out.”