Neighbors Still Smell Smoke From Early Morning Fire
By: Brendaliss Gonzalez
Updated: March 4, 2012
"I don't even know if its still safe to actually stay here until they get rid of the smell because you can actually still smell the smell. I can smell it on my furniture and on my clothing," she said.
She woke up in the middle of the night when she smelled smoke. The single mom quickly left the apartment with her three children.
"There was smoke inside our house and i couldn't even breathe," said Haley McNeil, Hall's 6-year-old daughter.
That smoke was coming from a nearby apartment at the Anson Park Community that caught fire at around four in the morning. Firefighters immediately responded and were able to extinguish the fire.
They say the fire was caused by careless smoking. Fifty-five year-old Patricia Jacobson died from the fire, her husband Tim Jacobson sustained major burns and was taken to a hospital in Lubbock.
"He was coming out of his apartment on fire, his hair was on fire, his back was on fire and he was yelling that his wife was still inside," said Whitney Grey, a resident at the apartment complex. "I mean, I've never seen anything like that."
The apartment fire occurred just behind where Hall and her children live. The stench of the smoke is still evident, one of Hall's and other neighbors main concern.
"We could smell a little bit in ours but I've got the windows open and everything to air it out," said Christopher Greene, who lives in a neighboring apartment.
Not much has been cleaned up from the fire. Although officials let everyone return to their homes, hall says those remnants are what worry her.
"The smell is a very strong smell so i mean when you have children you know, you don't know exactly how it's going to affect them," she said.
According to the victim's daughter-in-law Teralyn Terri, Tim Jacobson is still in the hospital with major burns on 40 percent of his body, including his face.







