Poplar Bluff woman badly burned in apparent lighter accident

ST. LOUIS -- A Poplar Bluff woman was in critical but stable condition this morning in a St. Louis hospital after she was burned in a weekend fire at her Woodrow Street residence, the Daily American Republic reported.

Kelley Rae Robison is in the intensive care burn unit at St. John's Mercy Hospital, according to her uncle, John Grow of Grandin, Mo. "She's still critical, but they've downgraded it to critical, but stable," he said.

The first 72 hours are the crucial time, said Robison's daughter, Nicole Robison. "We're at almost 62. She is stable. ... She's doing especially well."

Kelley Robison, Grow said, was injured in an unfortunate accident.

Grow said his niece thought she had lost her keys in "my sister's room. Kelley happened to be looking under a love seat for her keys.

"She was looking for her keys with a lighter. It got so hot that she dropped it."

Robison, he said, already had set "the webbing under the couch on fire. She didn't even realize it ... until it flamed up and things got out of hand. She set her clothes on fire; that's why she burned so badly."

The younger Robison said it is believed the material in the couch cushions may have exploded and "flashed into her face."

The Poplar Bluff Fire Department was notified about the fire at Robison's 1820 Woodrow residence at 8:05 p.m. Sunday.

"Everything was burned," Grow said. "She got out with her miniature dachshund (but) the birds in the room died."

As firefighters put out the fire, Robison was taken to Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center for treatment and subsequently flown to the St. Louis hospital, arriving there at about 1 a.m. Monday.

Family members initially thought Robison may have been trying to put out the fire, the younger Robison said.

Now, she said, they think she may have been trapped in the room since the couch was located adjacent to the open door, which had clothing hanging on it.

Grow said his 45-year-old niece got out of the house by jumping from a window and suffered cuts from the broken glass.

The younger Robison described the cuts as being deep and were caused when her mother broke the first-story window.

"She was able to walk to the ambulance and talk in Poplar Bluff," Nicole Robison said. Doctors, she said, put her mother on the ventilator because they didn't know the extent of her burns.

Nicole Robison said her mother is still on a ventilator, but her oxygen level has been lowered.

The percentage of burns on Robison's body initially was thought to be 50 percent, but it has been lowered to 30 percent, the younger Robison said.

The burns, she said, are basically on her mother's "arms and hands; her back is the worst. (The burns are) third-degree (on) all of those areas. Some on her front and face are second (degree). It's basically the whole top part of her body."

Nicole Robison said her mother is supposed to undergo surgery Friday. "They're planning six surgeries or more," she said.

Grow's sister, Cara Frost, who has been living with Robison since undergoing open-heart surgery about two years ago, was checked for smoke inhalation. "She's OK," he said.

Nicole Robison said her 68-year-old grandmother was in the living room when the fire broke out and was able to get out. "She didn't have a scratch," she said.