 Investigators:
Cooking accident caused fire
Published Thursday, November 04, 2004
A cooking accident was the cause of a house fire Tuesday that killed an elderly
Moorhead couple, fire department officials said Wednesday.
Hosea Rose, 96, and his wife, Emma Rose, 90, died at MeritCare Hospital in
Fargo from injuries suffered in the fire at 1311 3rd Ave. S.
An investigation by the Moorhead Fire Department and a deputy state fire
marshal determined the fire started on the kitchen stove.
Moorhead Fire Marshal Rich Duysen said it appeared Emma Rose was trying to
heat some pasta noodles on the stove, but turned on the wrong burner.
Instead, the oven heated an aluminum pan containing some type of grease,
Duysen said. The pan melted, causing the contents to spill onto the burner and
ignite.
“That’s what our best guess is,” said Duysen, adding investigators are
95 percent certain.
The fire was reported at 6:07 p.m.
Just before 6 p.m., Emma Rose and her younger sister returned to the home
after running errands, said Fire Chief Joel Hewitt.
Emma Rose then started making dinner while her sister put the car away,
Hewitt said.
After the fire started, the sister dialed 911 from the kitchen phone, but
before she could say anything she dropped the phone because it got too hot,
Hewitt said.
The woman told the couple to get out of the house and ran to a neighbor’s
house to call 911.
The first neighbor wasn’t home, so she ran to a second house and called
911, Hewitt said.
She then returned to the couple’s home, but was unable to get back into the
house, where Hosea and Emma Rose were trapped, Hewitt said.
When firefighters arrived at the scene, the couple was found unresponsive
near the front of the home.
Emergency workers performed CPR, but both victims later died at MeritCare.
The sister, whose name was unavailable Wednesday, was treated and released
for smoke inhalation, Hewitt said.
The couple’s age and lack of mobility made it difficult for them to escape,
Duysen said. Firefighters located a cane and a walker inside the home.
Their bodies have been sent to the Ramsey County (Minn.) Medical Examiner for
autopsy reports.
The fire caused extensive damage to the home’s kitchen and smoke and heat
damage to the main floor of the house.
Duysen said Minnesota’s leading cause of accidental fires is cooking.
Hewitt said he’s proud of how quickly the firefighters located the victims
and began performing CPR.
“They aggressively worked to save these people and bring them back to
life,” he said.
The last fire fatality in Moorhead was in December 2002, when a 4-year-old
boy died in a mobile home fire at 56 King St., Duysen said.
In 2003, the Moorhead Fire Department received an award for reporting no fire
fatalities, Duysen said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Amy Dalrymple at (701) 241-5590
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