A fire tore through a single-wide mobile home on Lee Road 302 in Smiths Station early Saturday, killing 32-year-old Anna Duell and sending her husband and infant child to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia. The Lee County Coroner’s Office pronounced Duell dead at the scene at 2:47 a.m.
Coroner Confirms Identity, Case Heads for Autopsy
The Lee County Coroner’s Office identified Duell as the victim of the fatal structure fire, according to WTVM. Coroner Daniel Sexton pronounced her dead at the scene early Saturday, and her body was set to be taken to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences Montgomery Medical Facility, where a postmortem examination will be conducted. The fire broke out at the single-wide mobile home in the 100 block of Lee Road 302, as reported by CNAW2.
Exactly when crews were called to the scene is murky. WTVM reported that Salem Volunteer Fire & Rescue said its Tanker 512 and two volunteers responded to a mutual aid call at 1:56 a.m., while CNAW2 reported that emergency crews were dispatched around 2:55 a.m. Saturday. The two accounts have not been reconciled.
Husband, Infant Flown to Burn Center
An adult male and an infant were hurt in the fire and taken to Piedmont Columbus Regional’s Midtown campus before being flown to a burn center in Augusta, Georgia, the same CNAW2 report states. Their conditions have not been released. According to AL.com, the injured man was Duell’s husband, Bobby Duell, and the infant was the couple’s child, who both suffered burn injuries in the fire.
Smiths Station Fire Chief Blake Green said multiple Lee County deputies made efforts to pull victims from the burning home and get them medical attention, the same CNAW2 account notes. The cause and circumstances of the fire remain under investigation by the Alabama State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, per the same report.
Racing Community Rallies Around the Family
Bobby Duell is a staff member at East Alabama Motor Speedway and a longtime racer, and the Duell family has deep ties to the racing community, having been involved in racing for decades, according to AL.com. The speedway announced the tragedy in a Facebook post Saturday evening, describing Bobby Duell’s experience as an “unimaginable tragedy” and asking the racing community to keep the family in their thoughts and prayers, the outlet reported. The speedway said it was awaiting further updates on Bobby Duell and the infant’s condition.
A State With a Troubling Fire-Death History
The Smiths Station fire adds to a grim statistical backdrop in Alabama. The Alabama Fire Marshal’s Office recorded 108 fire fatalities statewide in 2022, and separate U.S. Fire Administration data cited by AL.com showed 66 Alabama home-fire deaths that same year and 45 through the first part of 2023. That data placed Alabama tied for the fifth-highest home-fire death rate in the nation in 2022, at 1.3 deaths per 100,000 residents, and the outlet’s 2023 figures ranked the state third nationally in home-fire deaths per capita. The same report found that no smoke detector was present in 73% of Alabama fire deaths for which smoke-detector status was known over the prior year and a half.
More recently, state officials have pointed to improvement. Alabama State Fire Marshal Scott Pilgreen said fire fatalities in the state are trending downward, even as he acknowledged that Alabama is historically one of the top states in the nation when it comes to fire deaths, according to WSFA. No cause has been determined in the Smiths Station fire, and investigators have not released further details as the case continues.
