2 Jennings Women Die in House Fire
Rod Walton
11/08/1996
TULSA WORLD (FINAL HOME EDITION Edition), Page A11 of City State, News

JENNINGS — A woman and her teen-age granddaughter perished Thursday in a house fire that may have gone unnoticed by the two because the only smoke detector in the home had no battery in it, officials say.
Wanda McCosar, 64, and Finney, 19, both died from smoke inhalation, authorities believe. Their bodies were found inside the house east of Jennings around mid-afternoon.
McCosar’s body was found lying on the sofa in the living room, said Dave Frick, fire chief with the Jennings Volunteer Fire Department. Finney’s body was discovered in a bedroom.
Finney would have celebrated her birthday later this month, Frick said.
The home had only one smoke detector, and it had no battery, Frick pointed out.
”Definitely if they had a working smoke detector, and more of them, this situation wouldn’t have happened,” he said. A passerby called firefighters after seeing smoke. Authorities
believe the fire could have been burning for some time before its discovery.
The fire apparently started in a wall by the kitchen, Frick said. However, there were no indications the fire was started from a nearby stove or from an electrical malfunction, he said.
Although the state fire marshal was still investigating, authorities do not believe foul play was involved, Frick said.
Ironically, the damage to the home was limited because the fire burned up a water line.
“The water squirted straight up and that’s probably what saved the house,” Frick said.
Investigators are not sure when the blaze started. All they know is McCosar returned from her job in Sand Springs Wednesday night and Finney was due to report to her workplace Thursday morning. When she didn’t show up, a fellow employee called the home, but the line was busy.
”The phone was burned up,” Frick said.
The bodies have been taken to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Tulsa, Frick said.
The younger woman had been living with her grandmother for several years, said Cleveland firefighter Les Harper, who was on the scene as part of the ambulance service.
”It was pretty hard on the Fire Department,” said Harper, who went to school with Finney. “It’s all small town out here, and everybody knows everybody. They were just nice people.”
Jennings Fire Chief Frick said McCosar was known as someone who worked hard despite her age.
”She had a job and cut her own wood,” he said.

World staff writer P.J. Lassek contributed to this story.

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