Obviously, I won't be doing the whole interview, but this is a transcription of LS's version of Sunday night and the fire.
Source
LS - Gannon, you know, wasn't feeling too well and, you know, the dog.. you know how they like know someone's not feeling well? So, they were all in down there and it was gassy, like very bad... they're bad for that, very, very gassy or whatever and, you know, life goes on but.. so, Gannon had started a candle, again, normal; he's very like responsible in terms of like - if you give him something and say 'do this, this and this' like a list to prepare, he's fine. So, we let him, you know, do things like that, like, Albert lets him use the box cutter to cut the boxes down, you know, and like, teaches him things to be like a independent growing up, adolescent. So, I didn't see a problem with him, you know, light the candle, whatever, whatever, whatever. Weeelll, I don't remember the exact time, I'd have to like at when the fire thing went off. I was tired, Albert had left, so we had spent the whole night prior, Saturday, because he was going to train Oklahoma. So, we stayed up most of the night. You know, just, everybody was going to miss each other wouldn't see each other for a while, whatever, so I was kind of like, you know, tired. I had dozed off for a little bit and L asked me - could she stay up and to watch the rest of her I-Pad or whatever. Usually, I was always like 'no' straight like 'no you can't' whatever, but I did feel kind of bad because she... it was just her birthday and at the same time being her birthday we had a lot of stuff going on, so, we made it about her, but like, I was trying to give her a little bit extra because not everybody got to make it there and we went all out for Gannon's birthday, like we took him to a Rockies game, we took friends with him. I mean, you know like - popcorn, hot dogs but we didn't do that with her, but, in her defence we bought her a switch, so, it's kind of like different, but she didn't understand that. So, I let her stay up longer than she's supposed to as like, you know, I don't want to say bribery but, you know? So, they end up staying up a little bit later and so, she was still kinda... she's a very hard sleeper and she's hard to like, pick up, move, if she falls asleep, whatever. But see, I could tell she was just barely asleep when I went in there.
(
next part doesn't seem like a continuation, so it may have been redacted for court)
So, it starts beeping like a beep, beep, beep, and I thought that someone was coming in the house. So, I look and don't see anyone at any doors or hear anything. So, I was like, it's (
inaudible) so I hit it with (
number code) which is our alarm code; but it didn't go off. And I was like 'what's wrong with the thing' so I walk through L's room because the alarm is in her room, and I walk back like, through, like, the top part of the house, and you've been in the house so you know the top part of the house.
LE - I haven't been in the house.
LS - Okay, so there's a upper level and then there's the below basement, so I was walking back and forth, whatever. I didn't see anything going on, then it started saying fire, fire, fire, fire, fire, like it kept saying fire.
LE - Oh wow.
LS - So... and I thought it was the.. you know how like there's like sensors for your fire alarm and then there's sensors for your, like, alarm alarm? So, I was going to everything, trying to like (
inaudible) why it was going off because I was thinking kitchen fire; nothing's wrong, whatever. So, I was putting like towels over some of the sensors because I thought that was like, monitoring the fire thing, whatever. And then I realised it kept going and going. So, then I see smoke coming up from the downstairs. So, I ran downstairs and.. my idea of a big fire is anything that I see on fire, pretty much, when there's smoke, you know? that's just because I grew up in the country. So, you know, like I remember bonfires and things like that, you know? So, there was smoke coming up through the basement; so the basement has.. so like you walk down the basement, there's a sofa and stuff over here. It was coming up through the basement. So, I (
big emphasis on I for some reason) ran back up the stairs, go grab L, luckily... my point telling you about her being not a (
inaudible) sleeper, she woke right up. So, she woke back up and I almost like grabbed her and I was like, you know, 'get up, get up, get up'. I said... I gave her the keys, I said 'can you go...' I don't remember the exact order, but I said something along the lines of 'can you go take the dogs to daddy's truck and sit there and wait'.
LE - Right.
LS - So, I don't remember the order of how we all ran out the house, but I know at that point I did... she ran out and I can't remember if I ran up to make sure they got in the truck or if she ran out by herself, I don't remember that part, but I do know that they were... they had gotten in the truck. I came back inside, run back downstairs and that's when I was trying to get Gannon, because I couldn't get... I didn't know how to get everybody at once, so, (
inaudible) to get the front people out, you know, and then go.. then I ran back downstairs to get Gannon and then the fire was on the floor over here, then on the sofa, so I'm pretending this is the sofa, and this is our floor, so, it was right here and right here and I saw the candle that was over here. So there was covers everywhere, because the kids always get em out and leave a lot of covers laying around, all the time. I mean there's like 10 quilts and LOL's and blankets and all this. So, they were all right here, so, I take a whole bunch of them and I go and like, like, like, basically smash down on the sofa and the fire to put it out. So I got a burn and I was like, you know, Gannon started running at that point, because it wakes him up. He's realising that the covers and everything's on fire, the carpets on fire and we all go outside. So, we get in Albert's truck and we drive and I drove off in panic, because I saw that I put the fire out, so, I knew that there was no, you know, like nothing wrong, like it wasn't gonna keep going. I drove off in panic because I was like 'oh my gosh, what do I do now?' Like (
inaudible) burnt the carpet, you know, so we (
inaudible). Gannon's upset, freaking out because he's scared he's gonna get in trouble and da da da da da, you know, so like the whole talk went on. So, we drove around the block a little bit and came right back. So, we came back in and like develop a plan for the next day to figure out... honestly, we were gonna like fix the carpet and try to like, not say anything. And the reason for that is because - like Albert freaks out about every little thing if the kids do something and I'm on like... me, and he'll be like 'you did this, you weren't being a good mom, you weren't doing this, you weren't doing that' and so, we both kinda were like, a little, like, worried about it and he gets very, like crazy; like if something goes wrong. So, that was the plan, go to sleep, rest, he was gonna stay out of school, we was gonna get the carpet fixed and then go from there.
So, L didn't want to sleep in her room, you know, everybody was still kind of, like, frazzled and I think L slept with me or on the sofa. I brought the dogs up and Gannon he went... he wanted to go to his room at that point because he was already sleeping on the (
inaudible). So, that's where Sunday, like, pretty much, kind of like, stopped and everybody went to bed and yadda, yadda, yadda. I think I sent Albert messages, because he was (
leaving or sleeping), he was on a different time zone and we didn't see him that night, so. And, I didn't feel that no one was in harm; I make sure I say that, because the fire was not... the fire was not going. Now, I know that Gannon had like black marks all on his shirt, like, like, smoke mark but he had on a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt, because he sometimes he has or whatever. They are short sleeves, or long sleeves... a short sleeve shirt with a long sleeve shirt. So, I didn't see him in any kind of like nothing other than the little burns that we had.
LE - Where did you see burns on Gannon?
LS - Alright, so, with Gannon I just saw that... okay, so like on the top, like, right here. Like, say the shirts are here, like right here (
points to lower arm), there was a burn and the reason for that was, I think, whenever like he was trying to come up.. kind of like kind of like burned him a little bit. I'm not gonna make an assumption, I don't really know and as far as that I didn't see anything else, like I didn't know any, like other differences or anything like that. All I saw was that, I said 'are you ok?' he ran out the house he was fine running out of the house. Everything was normal yadda yadda yadda. Now, I'm gonna let you know in a little bit why he was bleeding. At that point, when you get to the Monday morning thing, I'll let you know about that.
LE - Just describe the flames for me - how tall are these flames? is it like smouldering on the carpets or kind of creeping across like a grass fire or is it, like, coming up, working it's way up the couch, like how was it...?
LS - Well, like I really don't know. I know that it was like here, centralised, on the floor, but like, I could see... I think the smoke might have like, kind of intimidated me more because I spent all night coughing. So, I think that, that kind of intimidated me so much because I couldn't... the visibility was starting to be a little bit, you know, like, as if I had walked into a small fire, and I was just afraid that it was gonna.. cause you know, like upholstery for the couch - that was my biggest concern was the upholstery for the couch. So, I would say, you know, it's like, maybe like, in this area, like right here, it wasn't like here.
LE: So, the flames were 2/3 feet high you think? how much light did you see coming off of it through the smoke?
LS - I don't know.
LE: Okay, and that's fine if you don't know.
LS - I'm not really.. I'm not like in a professional... and I was in the moment of freaking out, to give you an accurate answer.
LE - Sure.
LS - Because I don't want to tell you what's here; then it might have been here. I don't want to tell you this, this and this and... I don't know.
LE - This is all based off of your memory to the best of your recollection?
LS - Right.
LE - And that's all it is, okay?
LS - I do know that I saw covers coming up on fire.
LE - What covers were coming up on fire?
LS - Like, he had a cover on, because he was sleeping on the sofa.
LE - What was he covered with?
LS - What do you mean?
LE - What kind of blanket... you'd mentioned there was LOL's, there was quilts.. what blanket was he using?
LS - Errrr I'm not sure, there was a couple that were there. There was a black... there.. I put them all back in that bin that was sitting... did you see...?
LE - I've never been in the house.
LE - Okay, there was black it was like a little furry.. there was (
inaudible) ones, I don't remember specifically which one he had, but I know there was blankets in the area because we always (
inaudible) mermaid one around, but the whole operation of when I grabbed em and put it out, I grabbed em all and done it.
LE - Okay. All right. Were any of them, like, damaged whenever that happened?
LS - Oh yeah. I left them all there and when I showed them that night that, you know, like, they were damaged or whatever.
LE - Okay, well I haven't been in the house so...
LS - I'm sorry, I'm speaking to you like...
2nd LE: I didn't go into the house either, so I was like, trying to make sure that..
LS - Yeah.
LE - So, then Gannon decides that he doesn't want to go to school because of his tummy issues or because he's going to help you with the carpet - what is it?
LS - It was, kind of, a combination of both.