Rocky Boy woman loses everything in fire

Ramona Stump of Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation said she came home last Tuesday after work to find her house on fire.

"The house is completely burned down. I lost everything," she said Monday. "I was in tears all last week."

The fire, which she said is being investigated, may have been the fault of her sister, who told her she may have forgotten to put out a cigarette.

Stump said she was picked up by her daughter from work at a local bar at about 2 a.m. Tuesday.

"We're driving and the next thing we know is we see smoke," she said. "Is somebody's wood stove on fire?" she asked.

By the time they got close enough to the house, at a village near Box Elder, she realized the fire was coming from her home.

"Big flames were just shooting outside by bedroom window," she said.

The Rocky Boy Fire Department, Stump said, took about an hour to respond. Ashes were flying onto the houses next door and one of her neighbors, she said, was spraying his home with a water hose for fear it might catch fire.

She said she tried to get assistance the next day but was told that funds had been frozen due to a lawsuit and assistance was not available. Friends and family have given her a bag of clothes, she said. She is staying with a sister - not the one who might've burned the house down - she said.

Red Cross media spokesperson Anna Fernandez-Gevaert said Monday the Red Cross has received information about the fire and is working on verifying the information.