Barbara Lewis spent the last night of her life preparing for her family's Thanksgiving.
Lewis, 45, died early yesterday in a fire at her house on 401 W. 24th St. in Winston-Salem.
Lewis' sister, Geraldine Wood, stood looking at the remains of the modest white house yesterday morning and recalled the events of the night before.
She and Lewis had made a shopping trip to the Family Dollar Store only a few hours before the fire started, to buy paper plates and other supplies for their Thanksgiving meal.
She dropped Lewis off at her house about 7:15 p.m. The fire started about 12:30 a.m.
Wood lives a few blocks away, on 14th Street, and heard about the fire from Lewis' son. She rushed over when she heard the news, but the house was engulfed in flames.
"It was burnt," she said. "It was gone."
The fire appears to have been started by an electric space heater that was placed too close to the bed, said Norman Mitchell, the deputy fire marshal for the Winston-Salem Fire Department. The heat from the heater likely caused fabric on the bed to ignite, he said.
An autopsy is pending, Mitchell said.
Firefighters arrived at the house about 12:40 a.m., said Battalion Chief Kevin Griffin.
Lewis was found in a hallway of the one-story house. She lived alone in the house.
Lewis was one of 21 siblings, Wood said. One of their brothers died in the 1980s.
Wood said that her mother died the day after Thanksgiving five years ago.
"Then she dies a day before Thanksgiving," Wood said of her sister. "It's ironic."
She said that the family's Thanksgiving celebration will go on.
"When tragedies happen to your loved ones, it's sad," she said. "But you've got to keep going. That's my philosophy."
Relatives gathered at Wood's house late yesterday morning, exchanging hugs and talking about what happened.
At the Liberty Butcher Shop, where Lewis worked behind the counter for 16 years, customers and co-workers stopped to remember the woman they knew as "Fatty."
"She was as good-hearted as she could be," owner Pearline White said. "Everybody knew Fatty; everybody loved her."
White said that Lewis was her hardest worker.
Fellow employees were stunned at the news of her death.
"She was sweet to me and my kids," co-worker Effie Young said, on the verge of tears. "She would give you her last."
Art Davis, a friend for 25 years, said that Lewis was known for her kindness and generosity.
"I just hate that it happened to her," he said. "She would give you the shirt off her back."
No one else was home at the time of the fire, Griffin said.
The house was destroyed, with damage estimated at $45,000 to the structure and and $5,000 to the contents.
Lewis' death is the city's second fire fatality of the year and the second in less than a week. Last Friday, Sarah Pegram, 59, died in a fire at her house on Goldfloss Street. Investigators determined that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction.
■ Paul Garber can be reached at 727-7327 or at pgarber@wsjournal.com.
Fire-safety tips
Fire officials with the city of Winston-Salem said yesterday that with the cold weather ahead, they are trying to educate the public about ways to lower the chances of a fire.
"We are more concerned now with the economy the way it is, if people can't afford to buy oil heat or pay their gas bill, then the alternatives would be to use some type of portable heater," said Norman Mitchell, the city's deputy fire marshal. A common problem is putting a heater too close to a bed, or near drapes.
Mitchell offered these tips:
□ Keep the heater 3 feet away from objects. Check the heater's manual to be sure.
□ Don't use an extension cord that isn't rated to handle an appliance.
□ Don't go to bed with a heater left on.
□ Keep children away from heaters.
Smoke detectors are also a must for fire safety, with one in each bedroom and in hallways, with one within 10 feet of any bedroom door, Mitchell said.
Safety tips can also be found through www.nfpa.org, the Web site of the National Fire Protection Association, or at www.usfa.dhs.gov, the Web site of the U.S. Fire Administration.
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