MADISONVILLE, LA – A 91-year-old man and a 61-year-old woman were killed in a house fire this morning.
Robert White, who would have turned 92 this Sunday, and Adele Cooper both died in the fire, which broke out around 7 a.m. on March 9, according to the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office.
Family members on the scene identified the two victims.
According to the Saint Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office, both victims died from smoke inhalation.
Firefighters say the home was fully engulfed in flames when they arrived. Hours after the flames were out, a crew remained on the scene with a water truck to make sure no hot spots remained.
Two of Cooper’s brothers were also inside the house but were able to get outside. One of them, Clement Cooper, said he tried to alert his family members about the fire but the flames spread too quickly.
“I went to the side of the house and tried to put it out with water. Then I went to the front of the house, knocking on the window where she was so she could get out of there,” Clement Cooper said. “She never answered. Then I was knocking on the door and the window there in the back for my uncle, and he never answered either.”
The state fire marshal says that the fire probably began after a pair of shoes was left on top of a space heater that the family was using to heat the home.
