Woman badly burned in Kennett fire, possibly because of padlocked door and no smoke detector

KENNETT, Mo. -- A local resident was air lifted to the Memphis Med in Memphis, Tenn., where she was listed in critical condition, following a fire at her home on Luther Street.

The Kennett Fire Department responded to the house trailer fire last weekend to find the resident, Carolyn Joiner, lying in a puddle with burns over 70 percent of her body.

Upon arrival, firefighters found the structure, trailer No. 3 on Luther Street, fully involved and Joiner trying to cool her burns by lying in a puddle of water.

According to the Kennett fire chief John Mallot, Joiner was awakened to discover that her clothes were on fire.

"It appeared she tried to get out one door, which was padlocked on the outside, then had to turn and come all the way back through the fire and get out another exit," added Kennett fire marshal Scott Tutor.

"During all this time, she was on the telephone trying to call her neighbor across the street to advise her of the situation."

Joiner's boyfriend, Vernon Sweaney, told Tutor the door was padlocked from the outside "because it wouldn't shut."

Joiner was transported by Medic One to Twin Rivers Regional Medical Center in Kennett. She was then air lifted to the burn unit at the Memphis Med, where she is listed in critical condition.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

"Paramedic Paul Spain asked [Joiner] if there were any working smoke detectors in the trailer," Tutor said. "She said, 'No,' so I did a canvass of the whole trailer court and didn't find any at all. City code requires the owner to install [detectors]."

The owners of Joiner's trailer are Jimmy and Kim Youmans, of Wappapello, Mo.

"The thing about this fire is that if people have rental property, they have a responsibility," Mallot said. "That responsibility is, that house has to meet a minimum housing code. Anything less than that is substandard living.

"The code says you have to have smoke detectors in residential structures. We've preached this. We've even been out [to the Luther Street trailer court] before and told these people about it. Just a simple $5 or $6 smoke detector could've got that girl up and out of there in a whole lot more time. Six dollars could have saved this young lady a lot of pain and agony.

"Landlords have a responsibility to make sure smoke detectors are in place and they operate when the building is rented. To protect themselves, we have a form here [at the administration office] that they can pick up. When they rent that house out, walk through there with the people, sound the smoke detectors and make them sign the form. We're getting a lot of fires that are just gross negligence on part of the occupants or the owners of the property.

"What we're going to do is file this in city court because the owners violated a city ordinance. The owners did not have smoke detectors in this trailer, according to the occupant. We canvassed the other trailers and none of them had smoke detectors. We have no recourse but to go back on the owner and take them to city court."