BATON ROUGE - A 64-year-old woman is dead after a house caught fire off Napoleon Street behind Greater Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church on Thursday morning.The Baton Rouge Fire Department was on the scene just after 4 a.m., and the fire was under control by 5 a.m.While crews were searching the home for other occupants, a neighbor across the street said a child had escaped the home and was staying at another home nearby. The child was not injured. One neighbor said they were awoken by loud noises and came outside to the terrifying sight of the fire."The fireman running cross my yard with a yellow hose, so I came out and when I came out I came into this tragedy of the house on fire and someone being in it," Ladre Johnson said.Investigators are still working to see what caused the fire and whether the home's smoke detectors were working. Robert Combs with Baton Rouge Fire says this is a reminder that working smoke detectors can prevent future tragedies, especially during the colder months. "We're doing things that's not part of our normal routine as in using fire places, space heaters, that sort – anything we have to do to heat the home, so more tension is drawn to house fires during this time of year," Combs said.Combs also said it is important, that if tragedy does strike, to have an evacuation plan. "We come in and out of the places where we live on a regular basis, but we don't take into consideration in the middle of the night when something occurs and wakes us from our sleep – we don't take into consideration what we need to do and where we need to go," Combs said.He added that the fire department will install free smoke detectors inside homes, but residents should also take precautions with heating appliances during the winter. "So having things that are combustible that will catch fire too close to those heaters, using extension cords and plugging them into power strips. Power strips are not designed to handle the load space heaters will pull. So, we ask you to plug the space heaters directly into the wall outlet," Combs said.Permalink| Comments