By Angelia Joiner
Scripps Newspapers
ABILENE, Texas — A 78-year-old Colorado City woman died in a fire on Easter but not before awakening her napping family, who managed to escape the blaze.
The two-story home and two outbuildings were destroyed in the blaze Sunday afternoon, as well as a vehicle parked underneath the carport, officials said.
According to Mitchell County Sheriff Patrick Toombs, June McMillan awakened her husband, Weldon, also 78, who was sleeping in a downstairs room, and told him that the computer printer had caught fire. She told him that she believed she had extinguished the fire but wanted him to call the fire department anyway, the sheriff said.
“She thought she had it out,” Toombs said. “It was a lot more involved than what they thought.”
She then went to the bottom of the stairs and called to her adult son Gillis Ellis, who was sleeping upstairs.
Ellis told officials that he managed to escape the smokefilled house by climbing through an upstairs window, according to Toombs.
Weldon McMillan went outside believing his wife had done the same, Toombs said.
Toombs said Weldon Mc-Millan, who “has a hard time getting around,” drove to a neighbor’s home and called 911 at 4:30 p.m. Ellis also called 911 on his cellphone.
When firefighters arrived minutes later, the house — located at 809 County Road 100, near the city limits on the eastern side of town — was engulfed in flames, officials said. Crews were unable to get to June McMillan, said David Myers, a volunteer firefighter with the Colorado City Fire Department.
“The house already had so much smoke in it,” Toombs said.
Fire departments from Loraine and Westbrook were called in to assist, officials said. Toombs said it was not known why June McMillan did not leave the home, but he speculated that she was trying to gather some belongings to take with her.
Firefighters found her body at about 7 p.m. “in the southcentral part of the house on the first floor,” Toombs said.
Toombs said Weldon Mc-Millan stayed on the scene until a short time after his wife’s body was found, then Ellis took him to the hospital.
Toombs declined to say why McMillan was taken to the hospital.
The sheriff said the fire burned really hot.
“There was a lot of stuff in the house,” Toombs said. “There were four pianos and a lot of furniture so that caused it to burn hotter than normal. Then the wind picked up.”
Toombs said the firefighters finished up at the scene around 8 p.m. Sunday, but then returned Monday morning when the fire flared up again.
Toombs said he and a Midland fire marshal spent most of the day on the scene investigating the fire’s cause, which he said appears to be electrical. The investigation is ongoing.
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