Published: October 08, 2009 11:48 am      

Keavy Woman dies in fire

An 82-year-old Keavy woman lost her life in a fire Sunday night on East KY 312.

The Keavy Volunteer Fire Department responded to a mobile home fire shortly after 8 p.m. at 2748 Laurel Lake North Road.

Judy Colby, who lived alone, was found unresponsive in a back bedroom on the opposite side of where the fire apparently started, Chief Ronnie Bales said.

Colby was pronounced dead at the scene by Laurel County Coroner Doug Bowling.

“She died from smoke inhalation,” Bowling said.

Keavy firefighter Kyle Smith was coming home from the Corbin Walmart when he spotted the fire and called 9-1-1.

“I drove my family home and got my gear and came back,” Smith said. “The flames were 20 feet high. We went in the front door because we thought she was in the bedroom on the right, because that’s where the neighbors said she slept. We didn’t find her and went through the trailer to the back bedrooms. We found her sitting against the door of a back bedroom with a cordless phone in her hand. The back door lock was messed up so she had put a shelf up against the door blocking it. It was next to her washer.”

Chief Bales said it seemed as if she kept moving to the back end of the trailer to avoid the fire that apparently started in the living room near the front door.

“There wasn’t a kerosene heater in use at the time,” Bales noted. “That’s been falsely reported. We can’t figure out what caused the fire.”

A next door neighbor, Kim Storms, also called 9-1-1 when she saw the fire from her back door.

“The fire was coming out of the back window of the front room,” she said. “I told the firefighters there was a lady in there because she never went anywhere.”

Colby lived alone and was by herself at the time of the fire.

Brenda Reams, a neighbor who has known Colby for 25 years, said she was able to take care of herself and wanted to stay at home.

“She has a daughter and son, but they’re not allowed to come around because they could not get along with their mother,” Reams said. “They don’t live here. She has a friend her sister raised who acts like a nephew to her who comes and checks on her. His name is Joe Eaton and he lives in Woodbine.”

A next door neighbor for five years, Bill hopper, said she would not let him help her.

“I offered to help her, but she wouldn’t take it,” he said. “I did mow the grass a couple of times, but then I got to where I could barely get mine mowed.”

The firefighters remained at the scene until 1:30 a.m. Monday, but were called back at 5 a.m. when a vacant house in front of the mobile home caught on fire and burned to the ground. Reams said Colby lived in that house several years and when everything started tearing up, she brought in a trailer next to it and moved in. The side of the house near the trailer had caught on fire when the trailer burned but the firefighters thought they had put it out for good.

The cause of the trailer fire is under investigation by State Police Arson Investigator, Brian Lewis.

Staff writer Carol Mills can be reached at cmills@sentinel-echo.com.