Mobile home fire in Roy kills mom and son

UPDATE: On Monday, Oct. 21, the Roy Fire Department identified the two killed as Janet J. Shaw, 71, and Johnathan P. Gunter, 46, both residents of Roy.

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ROY — A fast-moving house fire claimed the lives of two people in Roy on Thursday.

The fire was first reported around noon in the Monte Visita Mobile Home Park. Neighbors told KSL TV by the time the first responders arrived on scene, flames had consumed most of the house – trapping a man and woman inside.

“It was 25 feet in the air and just engulfed the place,” Scott Wayment, a neighbor, said. “I didn’t even know they were in there.”

According to the Roy City Police Department, the first two officers on the scene attempted to break into the mobile home through a window but were met by smoke and heavy flames.

“The first officers on scene did learn that there were a couple of people trapped inside the home and began trying to remove them from the home,” Sgt. Josh Taylor said. “Those two officers did sustain injuries from breaking the glass and were taken to urgent care to get it looked at.”

Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the Roy City Fire Department. However, they couldn’t immediately enter the home.

“In this situation, the conditions were severe enough that we didn’t make entry right away, so firefighters pulled the attack lines and started putting water on the fire as quickly as we could so we could do the search,” Theron Williams, Roy City chief, said.

Eventually, firefighters were able to knock down the fire so that rescuers could enter the home; by then, the man and woman who had been trapped were unconscious.

“When they were removed from the fire, when they were removed from the fire, they were not conscious or breathing,” Williams said.

He said rescuers performed CPR on the man and woman, and they were rushed to a nearby hospital. Unfortunately, they succumbed to their injuries.

“Having the homeowners in the conditions that they were in, and then taken to the hospital – it’s very it’s a difficult day for firefighters,” Williams said.

Roy City Fire Chief Theron Williams says the home burned very quickly, leaving firefighters to fight the fire defensively before getting to the two people inside. Neighbors tell us the two people who lived at the home were a woman and her adult son. #Roy @KSL5TV pic.twitter.com/Q64cxvgJlL

— Shara Park ✨ (@KSLSharaPark) October 3, 2024

Scott and Sylvia Wayment live across the street from the fire. They say they knew their neighbor well and spent a lot of time at her house over the years – building things for her, baking and crocheting together.

“She was just a sweet lady, just as sweet as they come,” Scott Wayment said.

“Go out of her way, give you the shirt off her back,” Scott Wayment said. “Such a good neighbor, great neighbor,” Sylvia Wayment added.

The Wayments said the woman’s adult son also lived at the house but was not as social. They said he was a heavy smoker and often witnessed burns from his cigarettes on the carpet and on the porch. They fear that today’s fire is a result of those cigarettes.

“Just devastated, just devastated; I feel I know what happened, and it should have happened,” Scott Wayment said.

Investigators say cigarettes are one possibility for how the fire started, but right now the cause is unknown. They say finding the cause of the fire could take weeks, possibly even longer.

“Right now, we don’t know what caused the fire,” Williams said. “It’s under investigation by the fire marshal and other outside agencies.”