Couple Suffer Burns as Papers, Magazines Ignite Inside Home : Fire: Elderly pair are rescued by firefighters. Officials say waist-high reading material dating to 1983 near a stove and throughout the house fueled the blaze.

An elderly couple who accumulated waist-high stacks of newspapers and magazines throughout their home were in critical condition on Monday after the gas stove they were using to heat the house ignited a pile of papers in the kitchen, authorities said.

Tommy Montgomery, 88, suffered third-degree burns over 45% of his body, and his wife, Marsha, 77, received third-degree burns on her right hand and her shoulders, said Dorothy Jean, spokeswoman for UCI Medical Center in Orange. Both were also treated for smoke inhalation.

Inside the home, piles of reading material dating back to 1983 covered most of the floor and spilled into the rear patio and the empty back-yard pool, along with opened Christmas-present packages and cardboard containers of frozen food, said County Fire Department Capt. Dan Young.

The fire caused $50,000 in damage to the three-bedroom house in the 11200 block of Kensington Road, officials said.

“It’s rare to see a scenario quite like this where they have been collecting everything,” Young said. “But in most of these cases, the individuals feel these things to be very important. They wouldn’t think of discarding them.”

Firefighters, arriving at the house minutes after Marsha Montgomery dialed 911, had to crawl and feel their way through the thick smoke to find the couple, Young said.

They found the woman first, in the living room, and carried her outside. She told them that her husband was still inside, and they went in a second time and dragged him out, officials said.

Investigators found a broken heater in the house and three of the four stove burners on, Young said.

“It appears they used the burners on the stove as a heater,” he said. “But when you have stacks of paper near the stove like they did, you were just looking for trouble.”

Fire officials said they had known about the debris at the home because they had responded to earlier calls for medical attention there. They said they had reported the matter to the county health department.

But Tom Ahrens, the county’s supervising environmental health specialist, said his agency has no record of referrals or complaints about trash problems there.

Investigators also found five pianos in the house. Neighbors said that the couple once owned a music store in Long Beach and that Marsha Montgomery has taught piano lessons in her home since the early 1960s, when the couple moved to the neighborhood.

A neighbor across the street said he warned them just last week to get rid of the newspapers.

“I talked to Marsha about that Friday,” Roy Powers said. “She said she was saving them to sell.”

But neighbors said they never saw the couple throw their reading materials away--only Tommy Montgomery slowly walking out to the driveway every morning to bring in three newspapers.

Powers and his wife said they had been concerned about the Montgomerys living without supervision because they appeared to be frail.

“We though Tommy at his age might get a stroke or something,” Pearl Powers said. “But not a fire. We never expected a fire.”

Times staff writer Ajowa Ifateyo contributed to this report.

Preventing Home Fires

A check around your home is one of the best ways to help prevent a fire. Here are some tips to remember as you make your inspection:

Dispose of all combustible materials because they are fuel for a fire. Combustibles include paper, magazines, cardboard boxes, broken toys and rags.

Make sure combustibles stored under stairs or in halls are removed. Halls should be cleared to provide easier exit in case of a fire.

Daily household trash should be kept in a covered can away from any heat source. Recycle newspapers frequently.

Dust mops and cleaning materials should be kept in a ventilated area (an open area where there is fresh air). Keep these materials away from any heat source--such as a water heater. Vapors given off by these substances can ignite when they come in contact with a heat source, such as a pilot light.

Remove all weeds, tree branches and litter from your yard. If you have a fireplace, make sure it is properly screened and install a spark arrester with at least a half-inch mesh on the chimney.

Gasoline should be kept in approved metal safety cans, never in glass containers. The legal limit for gasoline storage is five gallons.

Keep matches in a closed metal container away from heat sources and out of the reach of children.

Never smoke in bed.

Properly install and maintain smoke detectors. They should be tested monthly and the batteries replaced every year.

Connect a hose to an outside faucet that will reach all areas of your house.

Make sure all family members know how to dial 911 in case of an emergency.

Source: Orange County Fire Department