MOTHER, SON ESCAPE FIRE IN JACKSON

JACKSON -- A young mother and her 2-year-old son were forced to flee from their burning Jackson apartment at 220 Morgan late Saturday morning.

The mother, identified by Jackson Fire Chief Gary Niswonger as Gloria Griffin, received serious burns to her left hand while attempting to put out the fire.

She was treated at the scene, and later treated and released at Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau. The child was not injured.

Niswonger said the fire was reported at 11:10 a.m. The fire call was delayed because the mother was asleep at the time and did not discover the fire until her son woke her up, the fire chief said.

Niswonger said there was no smoke detector in the apartment that would have alerted the sleeping mother.

"We didn't find smoke detectors in any of the other apartments, either," he said. "When the mother woke up and saw the front room on fire, she tried to put the fire out before she called the fire department. That just added to the time it took for us to get to the fire."

Niswonger said when he arrived, both mother and child and a resident in a downstairs apartment were standing outside the burning wood-frame structure; the building had been converted into four apartments.

"The fire was fully involved in the second-floor, three-room apartment," he said. "There were flames and smoke coming from the second-floor window.

"The fire really had a good head start because of the delay in calling the fire department. Once we got there, it took about 10-15 minutes to knock it down and bring it under control."

Niswonger said Griffin told Jackson police her son had been playing with a cigarette lighter and apparently set fire to a chair in the north-side living room. He said hot gases from the fire in the apartment blew out a double glass window, shooting pieces of broken glass against a house on the other side of the street.

Fire and smoke damage was confined to the second floor apartment area. Niswonger said arrangements were being made for tenants to return to their downstairs apartments by Saturday evening.

Niswonger was upset because the apartment building did not have smoke detectors.

"Both the mother and son had a very close call," he said. "It's very fortunate the boy was able to wake his mother up in time. We could just as well had the same thing happen here today that occurred several years ago over on Mary Street."

Niswonger was referring to a house fire that killed a mother and her infant son. He said that fire also occurred during the daytime while the mother was asleep. It was also started by a young child playing with a cigarette lighter. There was no smoke detector in the residence.

"This is why firefighters all over the country preach and preach about installing smoke detectors," Niswonger said. "They are lifesavers when a fire occurs."