A half-dozen balloons hung from a wrought-iron fence and two bouquets of flowers rested near a New Castle home Monday morning, placed there in memory of a mother and daughter who died following a weekend fire at their house.
The women, who have not yet been publicly identified, were 72 and 90 years old. The 72-year-old daughter died on Saturday, while the 90-year-old mother on Sunday, according to the state fire marshal’s office.
A son in his late 60s was able to escape the Saturday morning blaze.
According to the state fire marshal’s office, Minquadale Fire Company firefighters were called to the first block of Onaway Place, located in the Garfield Park neighborhood, just before 6:15 a.m. for reports of the fire.
There, they found flames “shooting” from the one-story house and were told that the women may be trapped inside.
As Minquadale first responders began dousing the fire, firefighters from at least two other local departments ran into the burning home and began searching for the residents. They found the two women critically injured and rushed them to awaiting emergency medical services personnel.
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The women were taken to Christiana Hospital, where both were initially listed in critical condition. They are the 13th and 14th people to die from a fire this year, compared with 10 people total who died in 2021.
Neighbors who spoke with Delaware Online/The News Journal Monday morning said they didn’t know the mother and daughter well, but said they had lived there for several decades.
A son also lived at the home, said neighbor Darcia Brown, who lives several houses down from where the blaze occurred. She saw him run inside the house and then back out after the fire started.
Brown said she was bringing her dog in from her yard after having let him out moments earlier when she spotted flames coming from gray home. At first, she didn’t realize the house was engulfed in flames.
“I’m like, what’s all this light?” Brown recalled. “Then I seen it. It happened just that fast.”
She said though she didn’t know the women well, she had just seen the 90-year-old mother on Friday. The woman had waved at her from her front gate and Brown and waved back.
“When I saw the balloons this weekend, I was like, ‘Somebody probably passed,'” Brown said. “But I didn’t know both of them had.”
Assistant State Fire Marshal Michael Chionchio said investigators are still working to determine where the fire started and what caused it.
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