HAVRE DE GRACE, Md. — It was 1:15 in the morning when firefighters responded to reports of a fire with people trapped inside a home on Erie Street in Havre de Grace, and a makeshift memorial on the front porch signals they could not get there in time to save 85-year-old Camellia Clark-Hicks and her husband, Howard, who was 73.
“Her and her husband… she’s lived in this house for over 50 years,” said Kezia Kellam-Coates, the victims’ niece, “She wasn’t leaving this house and she didn’t leave this house. She worked over at Perry Point at the VA Hospital for over 35 years. Well known over there. She retired from them. She’s going to be missed. She’s going to be missed.”
Fire investigators are crediting a working smoke alarm for alerting the couple’s son in time to save his life.
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“The smoke alarms activated,” said Master Deputy State Fire Marshal Oliver Alkire, “It alerted the adult son who attempted to go downstairs, however unfortunately due to the bulk of the fire, he had to retreat back upstairs, kicked the window out and jumped out.”
Tragically, it appears the elderly couple’s health and mobility challenges sealed their fate.
“She was in a wheelchair. Apparently, he had no way of getting to her. She was on the steps. It’s what we’re hearing,” Kellam-Coates told us.
Investigators say at this point they haven’t found any evidence of criminal activity associated with the fire, but they have not yet determined what started it.”
The family is convinced it was a space heater that was almost always in use on the first floor.
Whatever the cause, the only thing certain at this point is the pain and grief that come with losing people who gave so much of themselves to their community.
“The greatest is what we lost. We lost the greatest,” said Kellam-Coates, “She would cuss you out and love you all at the same time.”
