Childs Point tragedy: One year later Sister of man killed in mansion fire turns to prevention

Childs Point tragedy: One year later

Sister of man killed in mansion fire turns to prevention

By Brandi Bottalico

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Sher Grogg couldn't sleep past 3 a.m. without waking up and thinking about the Annapolis area fire that killed her family.

"I would think about how I couldn't help them," the New York resident said.

During Grogg's restless nights, she started researching fire statistics, regulations for Christmas tree sales and fire safety organizations.

By spring, she was involved with Common Voices, a group of fire safety advocates who share their stories to help others understand the importance of fire prevention.

Today, one year after the fire that killed her brother, sister- in-law and four of their grandchildren, Grogg, 58, is attending a legislative reception to talk about the importance of fire sprinklers. The Pyles' house wasn't equipped with them.

"I don't want other families to be in that same situation," Grogg said.

Grogg's younger brother Don Pyle, sister-in-law Sandra Pyle and the four grandchildren were killed Jan. 19, 2015, in the fire on Childs Point Road.

The blaze started when a corroded electrical outlet in the floor ignited a Christmas tree skirt, sending flames quickly up the 15- foot Fraser fir and into the rest of the 16,000-square-foot house, investigators said.

Don Pyle, a 56-year-old software executive, appears to have tried to extinguish the blaze while his wife rushed to save the grandchildren in their guest bedrooms, according to investigators. Grogg got a call that woke her up that morning.

"I was just like 'Where are they?' " she said. "It never even occurred to me that they wouldn't have escaped."

It was the last thing she thought would happen, especially to them.

"We all want to think it's not going to happen to us," she said. "But unfortunately it can happen to anyone ... fire is not discriminatory."

The mansion did not have a fire sprinkler system because it was built before homes were required by the county to have them - legislation that was passed in 2009.

Grogg is working with Common Voices to contest House Bill 19, which would allow jurisdictions to adopt amendments to weaken the fire sprinkler system requirements in townhouses and one- and two- family dwellings.

"They want to bring the decision to the counties, but it's been proven in the past that state requirements are much stronger," said Bruce Bouche, a public information officer with the Maryland Fire Marshal's Office.

Bouche is joining Grogg at the legislative reception tonight to talk about the importance of sprinklers.

"Air bags and seat belts, those things became mandatory by the government because people never thought it would happen to them," Grogg said.

Maryland is one of two states and the District of Columbia that have state requirements for the fire suppression devices. The number of deaths in home fires nationwide from 2007 to 2011 was 82 percent lower in homes with automatic sprinklers than in homes without them, according to a 2013 study by the National Fire Protection Association.

Grogg is in the process of getting an estimate to retrofit her house with a sprinkler system. While retrofitting is costly, there are tax and home insurance incentives available. According to a 2008 study by the Fire Protection Research Foundation, the cost to install a residential fire sprinkler system in a home was $1.61 per square foot.

"The sprinklers give you a chance," she said. "It buys you time and time is something Don and Sandy didn't have."

Prevention possible

In the Pyles' case, sprinklers may have prevented something that Grogg has been learning about called flashover - a term she hadn't heard before her brother's death.

Flashover is the sudden, simultaneous ignition of everything in a room after hot gases rise to the ceiling and spread out across to the walls. Temperatures soar to as much as 1,000 degrees in a few seconds.

"It happened before firefighters even had the chance to get there," Grogg said. "I don't think people realize how fast fire can be. Nobody survives flashover."

Grogg said her brother died yards away from a door on either side of him.

"They were going to get all the children," she said. "Nobody was going to leave there unless they had everybody."

Grogg used to visit her brother frequently, including around the holidays. She left a week before the fire.

She said her family has always been fond of Christmas trees.

Fire officials said people should water their Christmas trees daily. The Pyles' tree was watered about once a week, investigators said.

Grogg wants to hold tree growers more accountable, possibly requiring them to put labels that provide information on how to care for trees and the date it was cut down.

"The older your tree is, the dryer it is," Grogg said.

The Pyles' tree had been cut down more than 60 days prior to the fire, investigators said. It was set to be taken down the day after the fire.

In December, Grogg told her story in public for the first time at the Leading and Life Safety Conference hosted by the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation in Annapolis.

"A lot of angels have come into my life," Grogg said. "And I'm sure they're being sent from my brother and sister-in-law and the kids."

Grogg and her brother, born 18 months apart, were very close, she said. The siblings went to college together at the University of Delaware.

"It's really hard for me to get in front of people," Grogg said. "I'm doing it for my brother."

How to help

Now she educates people on having properly installed and working smoke alarms, a practiced escape plan and fire sprinklers installed.

A close friend of Don Pyle's told her he practiced a fire escape plan with his grandchildren after the blaze, teaching them to go out the window in the case of a fire.

"The kids were like, 'OK, well, how do you open that?' " she said. "Here in the fire you're saying you have to do that and that's foreign to them."

Childs Point residents Steve and Mary Duncan said since the fire they have wondered about ways to help make the fire department's job easier in case of another emergency.

After learning the Childs Point community didn't have access to fire hydrants - a constant water supply - they wondered if having a pool at their home made it safer.

County fire department spokesman Capt. Russ Davies said pools are typically hard to access because they are behind homes or fences, and they don't hold enough water to fight large fires. The fire department was using 3,000 to 4,000 gallons of water a minute to fight the fire at the Pyles' home, he estimated.

To make things safer, residents should make sure addresses are visible for emergency personnel and keep driveways unobstructed. Knowing your neighbors' addresses so they can quickly be referenced during a 911 call also helps first responders.

Davies said one of the 911 calls received for the mansion fire was from across the South River. Because dispatch knew the location of the call and the caller knew the house was on Childs Point Road, dispatch was able to find the address.

If a neighborhood has a concern, Davies said, the best thing to do would be to reach out to the fire department and have a crew come look at the area to see if there are any concerns.

Grogg said her brother and his family would have wanted her to help prevent another tragedy.

"I feel that people feel my pain when I'm talking," she said. "I want people to know what they don't want. I want them to take it seriously."

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Sister of Don Pyle becomes fire prevention advocate in wake of last year's tragic mansion fire

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