LAKELAND, Fla. — The family of a Lakeland woman killed in a November house fire is questioning whether her life could have been saved.

Lorretta Pickard, 76, was actually on a 911 call while firefighters were outside her Rockridge Road home when she died November 23.

Pickard can be heard telling the 911 operator that there was smoke in her log cabin-style home in a wooded area. 

"The smoke's getting bad," Pickard told the operator. 

"OK, if it's safe to leave the building, do so," responded the operator. "Close the doors behind you and remain outside."

But Pickard told the operator it was hard for her to get around, and she used a walker. She told the operator she wasn't far from a front door and help is on the way.

Pickard didn't try to escape the home.

"She was just feet from the door, and she was just waiting for the heroes that never came," niece Amber Addison said.

A few minutes later, Polk County Fire Capt. James Williams arrived at the home and described the fire on a radio transmission. 

"I repeat, we have heavy flames and smoke showing from the structure at this time. Getting ready to set up a courtyard lay for defensive attack," he said.

Inside the home, Pickard was still on the phone with 911 dispatchers and thought the firefighters who arrived were about to save her. That's what the 911 operator told her. 

"Yeah. They are coming, OK?" the operator said. "They're coming. They are right there, but they are going to make their way into you, OK."


Lorretta Pickard, 76, died in a November fire in Lakeland. (Family photo)

But Assistant County Manager for Public Safety Joe Halman said when Williams and another firefighter got close to the home, the fire was so hot that it burned through their gear.

Williams made the decision to not go inside the home to try a rescue. 

"Command, you have entrapment," a fire chief can be heard on the radio speaking to Williams.  

"Chief, it's too far gone for us to even make to attempt to make access to the structure now," Williams replied.

That judgment call to not go inside is something Pickard's family is questioning. 

"I don't know what they were thinking," Addison said. "I just know she was feet from a door, and she saw no flames, so they could have gotten to her with ease."

Halman said his firefighters did the right thing as far as fighting the fire. 

But he said Williams was suspended for 24 hours for sending a Snapchat video from the scene.

Halman said it was a violation of social media policy but didn't impact whether Pickard could have been saved.