Woman, 3 dogs found dead in house fire in Fort Worth residential neighborhood
At one time, 70-year-old Jan Davis was homeless, but for the last five years she and her dogs lived in a house on Hudson Street.
It was a home her sister, Jinx Neff, bought for her in east Fort Worth.
And it was the home where she was found dead Wednesday morning in a house fire.
“Never did I think something like this would happen to her,” Neff said Wednesday in a telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Fire officials said two of her dogs were found in the fire, but family members said three lived with her.
Davis and her dogs were found dead Wednesday at the house in the 2100 block of Hudson St., just a few blocks south of Interstate 30 near Beach Street. A ruling on her death is pending an autopsy.
The cause of the fire was under investigation on Wednesday.
Neff said fire officials told her the blaze apparently started under the home, which was built in 1949.
No other injuries were reported in the fire, which occurred shortly after 4:30 a.m..
“When an engine arrived, there was light smoke,” said firefighter Kyle Clay, a fire department spokesman. “Once they opened the door, there was heavy fire.”
Firefighters reported they did not hear any smoke alarms.
“There were smoke alarms in the home,” Neff said. “Now, I don’t know if she kept the batteries in them.”
Firefighters extinguished the flames in a short amount of time, fire officials said.
As they searched through the house, the woman was found in the back of the residence, fire officials said.
Locks were on the front and back doors, Neff said.
“The windows were nailed shut because there are a lot of street people in that neighborhood,” Neff said.
Neff said her sister didn’t allow the local street people to spend the night, but she still helped them.
“They would come by and asked her if she had any food, and there she would go and make them a sandwich,” her sister said. “Or she gave them bottles of water.”
Her former brother-in-law, Gary Athans, said Davis wasn’t disabled.
“She could get around,” Athans said. “She didn’t have a driver’s license, but her sister and granddaughter were around to give her rides.”
Neff said her sister had lived in Dallas and Austin, but she had been in Fort Worth the last 45 years.
“I think she helped the street people because she knew about their life,” Neff said. “She was a very good lady.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2020 at 7:24 AM.
