RIP Mayor Deana Stranz
Monday, May 4, 2009
I am absolutely devastated to bring you the news that Mayor Deana Stranz died late this evening. She died just as she lived, as a hero.
At approximately 7:00 PM this evening Deana and her family were walking their golden retriever through the neighborhood of Crown Knolls. There had recently been complaints to the council about the disrepair of some of the homes there and she decided to take a look for herself.
At approximately 7:30 PM a small home in Crown Knolls caught fire. The owner of the home, a young single mother had left incense burning while she ran across the street to talk to a neighbor. When she exited the neighbor’s home she saw her house in flames.
By this point Mayor Deana had reached the commotion and called 911. She looked for the homeowner, a Miss Marietta Edgecomb. Miss Edgecomb emerged at that time from the neighbor’s house and ran towards her burning home, yelling that her baby was still inside. As crowd watchers held her back she passed out.
The fire truck and ambulance had yet to arrive and the house was burning quite quickly. At this point Mayor Deana took matters into her own hands. She had been separated from her family by the crowd and ran into the blazing building herself. No one can be quite sure what happened inside the house but according to the police report Deana found the two year old child upstairs in her crib. The stairs must have collapsed after her as she appears to have jumped from the 2nd floor landing. By this time she was covered in fourth degree burns on 45% of her body.
As she reached the door, the house collapsed around her, crushing her left leg. Stranz made it out of the rubble just in time for the fire department to show up. She handed them the baby and then collapsed.
Ultimately her death was caused by smoke inhalation she incurred as she searched for and rescued the child. She died at 10:30 PM this evening at the Camelot Memorial Hospital.
A short biography of Deana’s life and her high hopes when she was elected mayor can be found here. I urge each of us to read it and really contemplate what it means to be a hero and a good citizen of Camelot. The child Deana saved was the daughter of Israel Falcone and his ex-girlfriend. Mr. Falcone is the leader of the recent revolt against the Mayor. Deana knew all of this and still did not experience even the slightest of hesitations at giving her life for this child. If that is not the perfect mayor I don’t know what is.
Although she was likely to have been ousted from her mayoral position tomorrow, she died our mayor and so all flags will be lowered tomorrow to morn the loss of one of Camelot’s finest citizens.
Our deepest sorrows and sympathies go out to her family. Camelot is certainly much darker without her.
Funeral arrangements will be posted at a later date.