A 13-year-old girl was one of two people killed when July Fourth fireworks sparked a huge blaze in her home — just two weeks after she beat cancer.
Jerilynn Brown had just rang the bell as she finally left the hospital late last month after a two-year battle with osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer.
She died on the Fourth of July when smoldering debris from fireworks the night before ignited at the back of her family’s home in Independence, Missouri, engulfing it in flames around 5:30 a.m.
“It was a breezy night,” Independence Fire Chief Jimmy Walker told KHSB of the wind fanning the flames overnight.
“Hours can elapse while a fire smolders… We always have to worry about smoldering fires and the fact that they can go undiscovered for a number of hours and eventually can become out of hand quickly.”
Walker said there were no working smoke detectors in the farmhouse.
Jerilynn had just been discharged from Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City in late June after her two year battle with cancer, her father, Jerry Brown, said.
“She just rang the bell,” Brown told KMBC.
A second person, 52-year-old Marc Anthony Young Sr., died on Sunday, after fighting for his life for almost three days from injuries in the fire, his son, Marc Anthony Young Jr. told the outlet.
Jerilynn’s mom, Liz Stephens, remains in the hospital “fighting for her life” after being severely burned, Jerilynn’s stepfather, Stephen Miller said.
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