Retired nurse, 69, dies in Gaston County house fire

GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — A Belmont family and community are grieving after a 69-year-old woman was killed Wednesday morning in a house fire.

Channel 9 reporter Ken Lemon talked to family and friends about how Shirlene Daughtridge tried to get out.

A close friend of Daughtridge said Daughtridge called her Wednesday morning and pleaded for help.

She thought Daughtridge had fallen, but learned later that her home was on fire and she couldn’t get out.

“You wonder why good people have to go,” Daughtridge’s cousin, Les Taylor, said.

Daughtridge was a retired nurse who became frail in recent years. She lived alone.

Loved ones said she had lived in the house for more than three decades.

The South Point Fire Department assistant chief drove by, saw the smoke and called for help.

Taylor lives nearby and heard the sirens, but didn’t know where the fire trucks were going.

He said Daughtridge's house was overloaded with too many things. All those items might have made it hard for her to get out of a cluttered home after the fire started, he said.

Firefighters discovered her body in the living room, which was the room that had the most damage.

"It's hard to believe, it's just hard to believe that this happened like it did,” Taylor said. "What a terrible, terrible way for somebody to die."

He said Daughtridge's death is hard blow to her daughter and her parents.

"She is not here anymore. She is with God,” Taylor said.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire.

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