A 72-year-old Morgantown woman died Tuesday morning after her Holden Road mobile home caught fire.

Georgia A. Goss, 72, lived in an old single-wide mobile home at 451 Holden Rd. Ms. Goss was partially blind and moved about with the aid of a walker, according to family members.

She had been living alone for almost a week since her long-time boyfriend, Hershel Swafford, was placed in a nursing home.

“He was worried about her living alone and wanted her to move to the nursing home with him,” said Patricia Morgan, one of Ms. Goss’s nieces. “She didn’t want to go right away; she wanted to wait and see how he liked it.”

Ms. Goss had purchased the 30-year-old mobile home many years ago. In her younger days, she had worked at Oster Corporation and at the old freezer plant on Second Avenue in Dayton.

Although she was preceded in death by two husbands, Ms. Goss never had any children. She did love animals, however, and kept several dogs as pets.

“My brother George (Gill) was over there just last night until about midnight, and he didn’t see anything wrong,” said Joyce Hensley, Ms. Goss’s niece, who also lives in Morgantown. “We were both over there every day, brought her food and took care of her.”

Just after 7:30 Tuesday morning, Rhea County Central Dispatch received a report of a fire on Holden Road and dispatched Rhea County volunteer firefighters from the Kiuka, Dayton, Laurelbrook and Frazier fire departments.

The first firefighters on the scene reported the small mobile home fully engulfed in flames, and portions of the roof had already collapsed onto the floor. It took firefighters about 30 minutes to completely extinguish the blaze, according to Rhea County Assistant Fire Chief Chuck Kinney.

Firefighters located Ms. Goss’s body lying on top of her walker, over the kitchen sink, which had fallen to the floor last week.

Firefighters found the remains of several of her dogs in the mobile home, although one dog did manage to escape. Ironically, the one dog that escaped was totally blind, according to Hensley.

Kinney and Fire Chief Billy Cranfield immediately notified Sheriff Mike Neal, Rhea County Coroner Daryle Cochran, Rhea County Medical Examiner Dr. Beth Cassady and Investigator George Rogers with the Tennessee Bomb and Arson Investigations unit.

Although Kinney found the remains of a wood stove and two kerosene heaters in the rubble, family members said that Ms. Goss never used the wood stove and had been using one kerosene heater and a small electric space heater to heat her home. Hensley said that her brother always filled and started the kerosene heater for his aunt.

With permission from Rogers, Kinney had Ms. Goss’s body transported to Rhea Medical Center. He then conducted an investigation of the fire scene assisted by Investigator Mike Owenby with the sheriff’s department.

All evidence pointed to the fire starting in the middle of the living room where the kerosene heaters were located, Kinney said. One of the kerosene heaters was almost completely destroyed by the fire, and Kinney believes that heater may have malfunctioned and the fire ruptured the fuel tank.

Based on the evidence and statements from family members, Kinney concluded that the fire was accidental and began in the kerosene heater.

Kinney said that one possible explanation for finding Ms. Goss’s body over the sink is that she went to fill a container with water in an attempt to extinguish the flames, bent over the sink, which was on the floor, and was overcome by smoke.

Funeral arrangements are by Coulter-Garrison Funeral Home, according to Hensley.

“She was a wonderful Christian lady, and we are going to miss her,” Hensley said.

John Carpenter can be reached at jcarpenter@xtn.net.