Aug. 11--WRIGHT TWP. -- Fumes filled the home at 4 Walden Drive, the place where Mary Ann Navin and her husband had lived for decades, as she searched for her grandson.
A fire had broken out in the home. At 11:12 p.m. Friday, Luzerne County 911 dispatched first responders to the scene at the Walden Park development. Police officers were the first to arrive, a neighbor said, but dozens of firefighters and EMS personnel from eight departments would soon line state Route 309 as they gathered to fight the blaze. By 11:24 p.m., the first engine arrived at the house.
The fire would claim the life of Mary Ann Navin, 70, and her grandson, 2-year-old Jack Navin.
As neighbors came outside to see what was happening, a woman, possibly a daughter of the couple who lived in the home, screamed as she ran across Walden Drive.
"She said her mom was yelling, 'Fire!,'" recalled Keelin Geisler, a neighbor.
By that point, the entire home was engulfed in flames.
Police said flames were shooting from a sunroom in the back of the house toward the roof and heavy smoke was pouring from the front door. Word went up to emergency units and through the community: A woman and man were safe outside, but another woman and a young boy were still in the home.
Firefighters knocked the flames down and first responders entered the home, where they found Mary Ann Navin and her grandson Jack.
Luzerne County acting coroner Bill Lisman pronounced Mary Ann and Jack Navin dead of carbon monoxide intoxication at 1:45 a.m. Saturday at the scene of the fire. The deaths were ruled accidental and no autopsy will be performed, he said.
"(Mary Ann) was a great lady. She loved her whole family," said Mary Jo Navin, Mary Ann's oldest daughter, Saturday at the home.
Flowers, a stuffed animal and a toy car placed next to a tree on the property formed a memorial. Soot darkened the bricks above the front door and the smell of smoke still hung in the air. The back of the house was gutted.
Mary Jo, of Fairview Township, had planned to spend Saturday with her relatives at a family reunion, which was why Jack was staying at the house. Instead, she was at a Lehigh Valley hospital with her father, Thomas, who sustained injuries in the fire. Later that day, she was back with family friends at the home where she grew up and where a sister had still lived with her parents.
Her mother had gone back into the home to rescue Jack where she was overwhelmed by "too much smoke, too fast," Mary Jo said. Wright Township police said they are investigating the events of the fire.
Mary Jo learned one firefighter was injured during the emergency. Fire Chief Dave Petitt could not be reach Saturday for confirmation.
"I hope he's OK," said Mary Jo, talking about the firefighter. "I want to thank everybody that helped. They did the best they could."
Mary Jo and the friends gathered there remembered Mary Ann as a woman who was full of life.
Mary Ann, one friend said, was honest and upfront with everyone.
"If she didn't like you, she would tell you it to your face," she said, but then she might just go and fetch you a pickle made from homegrown cucumbers picked from her garden. Another man remembered her as a proud Republican, a great quilter and a gardener who let him borrow some of her yard for his own garden plot.
She and her husband got engaged at Bear Creek Inn, which was the site of a special tradition for the couple. Every year, they returned to the inn for dinner at the same table where they started their marriage.
"She loved us so much," Mary Jo said. "She loved life."
Jill Whalen, staff writer, contributed to this report.
570-821-2051
Copyright 2013 - The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
