An unattended pan of oil left on a stove caused an early morning fire in Mason City that has left two people dead. Mason City firefighters were called to a duplex on Mason City’s northeast side at around 12:10 this morning. Dead are 40-year-old Madonna Anderson and her 10-year-old daughter Veronica.
Mason City Fire Chief Bob Platts says the Andersons were found in the back of the duplex in an upstairs bedroom. Both were transported to Mercy Medical Center-North Iowa in Mason City, where they were pronounced dead. Fire investigators say a pan of oil was left unattended on the stove, with a fire spreading to other areas of the kitchen, then moving to other rooms in the structure.
Veronica Anderson was a student at Roosevelt Elementary School, where crisis counselors and guidance personnel were on hand today to comfort her friends.