Family members tried to save fire victims.
Over a period of several hours Friday morning (March 9), grief-stricken family members streamed down Galatas Street near Madisonville to the wood-frame home where Robert White, at 91 years old the family patriarch, had lived for as long as several said they could remember.
White and a niece, Adele Cooper, 61, died early Friday when a fire swept through their home at 201 Galatas Road in western St. Tammany Parish. The St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office said autopsies are pending.
At least one other person who lives in the house was able to escape the blaze and was taken to an area hospital, family members said.
White would have turned 92 on Sunday.
“It’s a terrible loss,” said Yolanda Brumfield, who identified herself as White’s niece and Cooper’s cousin. “That’s our family.”
Brumfield was one of the numerous family members, some of whom live in the houses lining the road near White’s home, who gathered Friday to comfort each other and grieve their loved ones.
“He was the last of the elders,” another niece, Ursula Dorsey, who lives in Folsom, said of White.
Dorsey said she received a call early Friday from her mother that White’s home was on fire and headed directly to Madisonville.
“We’re a very close family,” she said. “We all spent so much time here growing up and for family events.”
Ronald Cooper, a nephew and cousin of the victims who lives a few doors down from White’s home, said the loss was too hard to accurately describe.
“That’s my family right there,” he said.
Firefighters from St. Tammany Parish Fire District No. 2 responded to the blaze. The State Fire Marshal had not publicly disclosed the cause of the fire early Friday afternoon.
Family members said the fire occurred before 7 a.m.
James Tanner, a nephew of White and cousin of Cooper who lives next door to their home, said he heard a boom and noticed smoke. He ran across his yard and noticed another cousin, who also lived in the house, outside.
“I said ‘Where are they?”’ Tanner said, referring to White and Cooper. “He said ‘They’re still inside.”’
Tanner said he tried to kick in the door but the smoke and flames overwhelmed him. “It was just gushing smoke and fire,” he said.
Family members said White had been dealing with failing eyesight in recent years but was otherwise healthy. They said White, Cooper and other family members who lived in the home largely kept to themselves.
“I never thought I’d wake up this morning to something like this,” Tanner said. “You just hold on to the Lord’s hand.”
