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Bedroom blaze claims resident’s life

By EUNICE LEE

A 35-year-old woman was found unconscious in her burning house and died Thursday evening at Barstow Community Hospital.

Two firefighters found Martha Blevins collapsed in the hallway of her house on 1455 W. Elm Ave. around 4 p.m. on Thursday. Although the coroner’s autopsy report has yet to be released, smoke inhalation was likely the cause of death, according to Barstow Fire Protection District Chief James McAlvey.

Blevins and her 16-year-old stepson were the only residents of the now charred house. Martha Blevins had legal custody of Jason Blevins, who was away during the fire with his father who lives in Redlands. Officials have not been able to reach either the teenager or his father, Peter Terwilliger.

The cause of the fire is still unknown; however several factors seemed to have made a bad situation even worse.

Blevins was at home alone when the fire appeared to have started in one of the bedrooms and the smoke detectors did not work, fire department officials said.

When the firefighters rescued Blevins, they found her on the floor next to an empty bucket. They theorize that Blevins – who didn’t call 911 – tried to fight the fire but then collapsed from breathing the smoke.

“If they had working smoke detectors, Martha might have found out about the fire while it was still small enough to manage,” McAlvey said. “We don’t know why she didn’t call 911.”
It was Blevins’ next door neighbor, Jeanine Jordan, who called for help. And it was after 24 minutes that fire trucks arrived at the scene.

“We had to wait about 10 minutes for a train to pass, and there’s just no way to get to this neighborhood without crossing the tracks,” said McAlvey, citing the reason for the delay.

“We’ve complained to the city that this is going to keep happening unless they build some way to bypass the tracks,” McAlvey said, “but they keep saying they don’t have any money.”
Jordan, Blevins’ neighbor, claimed that criminal activity likely sparked the fire and said that police had frequently paid visits to the Blevins’ home.

“I’ve lived here for five years and I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the cops here at the house,” Jordan said. Lt. James Henderson, Barstow Police Department spokesperson, also confirmed that the police have been called to the Blevins house multiple times but said he would not comment on the details.

Firefighters were able to contain the blaze Thursday evening with minimal damage to surrounding houses.