A Spryfield woman says a fire at her home could have been avoided had the public housing authority acted sooner.

Violet Fletcher's 19-year-old son narrowly escaped the Dec. 4 fire at their rowhouse. The blaze gutted their home, killing the family dog and cat.

The night before, Fletcher checked the house from top to bottom after detecting a burning smell. When the smell was worse the next morning, she said she went to work and called the Metropolitan Regional Housing Authority.

Fletcher said she asked the housing authority to send over an electrician and was told, "'OK, we'll see what we can do.'"

Two hours later, Fletcher got a call from a neighbour saying her home was on fire.

"I have a family to take care of. I don't want our house to burn. It's bloody winter. Being homeless in the wintertime is not fun," she said.

A fire official said Wednesday that the breaker for the electric water heater was the wrong size. It overheated and caused the fire.

Fletcher wants answers from the housing authority.

"We all could have died Thursday night. Friday, I called. I did what I was supposed to do," she said. "If they couldn't get an electrician out, I could understand as long as they went into the furnace room and cut the power to the unit. That's all they had to do."

The housing authority had written permission to go into the home in case of any emergency, Fletcher said.

The housing authority is reviewing Fletcher's case. But director Pat Lawrence said an electrician had already been dispatched by the time the fire broke out. The authority is waiting for an official report into the fire.

Linda Laffin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Community Services, said there could be changes to the electrical systems in other public housing units.

"Certainly they will, once they find out what the cause of the fire is, look at the existing unit to see if they can further determine the exact cause and then examine the other nearby units to see if they are also safe," said Laffin.

In the meantime, Fletcher and her family are staying with relatives until they can move into another unit.