Tuesday March 18, 2008

A young woman badly injured in a house fire last March 18 is joining forces with the Charlottesville Fire Department in trying to get the word out about smoke detectors. She says she doesn't want her boyfriend's death to be in vain.

"I remember waking up in the hospital and realizing I had lost my best friend and just thinking to myself 'how did this happen to me?'" Ashley Mauter recalls.

The house fire last March on Lewis Mountain Road left Mauter with burns over 30 percent of her body. She spent months going between the hospital and rehabilitation. And she had to go through the whole experience without her boyfriend.

"It's rare that you encounter somebody who makes you realize how wonderful the world is and how wonderful people and life can be," Mauter says. "He was just amazing."

After 25-year-old Brett Quarterman was killed last year, investigators found a smoke detector without batteries in the room where he was sleeping. Now on this one year anniversary, the Charlottesville Fire Department wants folks to make sure tragedy doesn't strike in their homes.

"I would say that a smoke detector is probably one of the most important devices that you could have in your home at any given time," says Charlottesville Fire Captain Mike Johnson. "More [important] than the washing machine and the dishwasher and so forth."

Ashley Mauter echoes that sentiment.

"It's so easy to buy a pack of batteries or call the Fire Department or your landlord and have a fire detector installed."

Charlottesville's only seen that one fatal fire in the past 11 years.

The fire department has a standing offer to provide any city resident with a free smoke detector and free installation.