By Lily Gordon
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer
A house fire Saturday night claimed the life of a Columbus woman and left a local police officer with minor injuries, authorities said.
Muscogee County Coroner James Dunnavant pronounced 36-year-old Dewona Ann Menner, of 3024 Lakeside Drive, dead at 7 p.m. from injuries sustained in the 6:30 p.m. fire. Her body was sent to the State Crime Lab in Atlanta for an autopsy.
According to a Columbus Police report, Officer David Blue rushed into the residence looking for a child thought to still be in a bedroom. Unable to locate the child, Blue ran from the smoking structure. A woman standing outside the home then told Blue the child was on a bed so Blue ran back into the house, not knowing the child had already been carried to safety, the report stated.
Despite his efforts, Blue couldn’t find anyone in the house, which at that point was filled with smoke. He rushed from the house, unaware a person was still inside. According to police, Blue suffered smoke inhalation and cut his hand.
The blaze began in the bedroom of the home, said Columbus Fire and Emergency Services Battalion Chief Eddie Hall, and it took firefighters about 40 minutes to get it under control. No one else was injured and the cause of the blaze remains under investigation, Hall said.
Copyright 2007 Columbus Ledger-Enquirer