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Obituary- White, Grace M. 4

GRACE WHITE DIES AFTER APARTMENT FIRE
Miss Grace White, 93, Rossville, died at the Kansas University Medical Center Burn Unit Friday, November 17, 1989. Miss White was taken by Life Star air ambulance after being found in her burning apartment in Rossville.

According to an item which appeared in the Topeka “Capital Journal,” Miss White was rescued from the burning apartment by Rossville Fire Chief Bob Sieh, who entered the smoke-filled building and carried her out. Sieh said she had burns and suffered from smoke inhalation.

Miss White was alone in her Main Street apartment when the fire began in a stuffed rocking chair, Sieh said. The fire was allegedly caused by careless smoking, and caused an estimated $10,000 damage, burning the chair, carpeting, Venetian blinds and a lamp shade. Smoke also damaged the rear half of the apartment and may have damaged an adjoining business building.

The fire was first detected by Rossville Police Chief Herb Bishop, who radioed the fire chief just before 3 p.m. and said he saw smoke and smelled what appeared to be wood burning in downtown Rossville. Soon afterward, Bishop told Sieh over the radio that the smoke was coming from Miss White’s ground-floor apartment.

Sieh said he drove to the scene and saw Bishop standing in front of the apartment’s open door as smoke billowed out. Sieh said that Bishop had tried to go in and get to Miss White, but the smoke was so thick he couldn’t get in, and he went down to his knees. Sieh went past Bishop, saw White was sitting on the couch, lifted her off and brought her out.

Bishop then started to fight the blaze with a fire extinguisher and he and bystanders administered first aid to White. She wasn’t conscious to verbal stimuli until she was brought outside and exposed to fresh air, Sieh said, but her level of consciousness improved at time went along.

Sieh drove to the Shawnee County Fire District No. 3 station at Rossville and returned with an ambulance supplied to the department by the Medevac MidAmerica Ambulance Co., which took Miss White to meet the Life Star air ambulance where it landed near Rossville High School.

Three firefighters from the district arrived with firefighting equipment and had the blaze under control in about five minutes.

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