Gillette Woman Fights For Her Life In Denver Burn Unit After Sunday Morning Fire

A 55-year-old Gillette woman characterized as “a giving person” who “doesn’t know a stranger” was seriously burned in an early morning house fire Sunday and is fighting for survival in a Denver hospital intensive care unit.

Tammy Jo Schafer was rushed to a hospital by paramedics and sedated because of the extent of the burns and pain involved, her daughter told Cowboy State Daily. Due to complications related to COPD, she has been placed on a ventilator.

Schafer is being cared for at the University of Colorado Health Burn and Frostbite Center on the Anschutz Medical Campus in Denver.

Schafer’s daughter Elisha Schafer said her mother called the Campbell County Fire Department herself for help from her home at 3725 Ron Don Road about 5 a.m. morning to report the fire.

“She’s been watching my dog, and even in her state where she was on fire and her hair was burned off and her face burned and her ears hurt, she still managed to let my dog out to make sure my dog’s safe,” Elisha Schafer said. “I talked to the fire marshals today. They’re still trying to figure out the cause of it.”

Campbell County Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug Rigsby confirmed the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We’ve called in the Wyoming State Fire Marshal’s Office to assist us with that,” he said. “When we arrived she was with Campbell County Sheriff’s Office deputies, we didn’t have any occupants or patients.”

Rigsby said the room and contents where the fire happened was destroyed, with heat and smoke damage throughout the rest of the structure. He declined to reveal what room the fire occurred in citing the active investigation.

Elisha Schafer said her mother apparently tried to put out the fire using a towel and then the towel caught fire and the flames spread to her mom, burning her face, hair and 21% of her body.

Tammy Jo Schafer had in recent years been struggling with health issues related to COPD and had heart surgery as well.

“(Medical personnel) said that her having COPD, ironically, probably saved her life … because she’s used to living on so little oxygen because of it,” Elisha Schafer said.

Complicated Recovery 

Schafer on Monday remained on a ventilator and under sedation. Her COPD and heart issues are complicating care, her daughter said.

“It’s made her recovery more difficult,” Elisha Schafer said. She said her mother has some health insurance, but she has no insurance on her three-bedroom, two-bathroom house which the fire marshal told her is likely a total loss.

Her mother has been a “giving person” and in addition to raising her and her brother, Jim Schafer, raised “other people’s kids,” opened her house for strangers who did not have a place to stay and helped others any way she could, Elisha Schafer said.

She said her mom loved to dress fashionably and loved music, playing it loud while she would dance around to her favorite artists Stevie Nicks and Supertramp.

“She always says it’s ‘happy music,’” Elisha Schafer said.

Lifelong friend Cathy Cole of Gillette, a registered nurse, has started a GoFundMe campaign to help defray costs for Schafer. She has not had a chance to talk with Tammy Jo Schaffer yet but knows she will need help in several ways.

Cole said her friend is someone who knows everyone in the community, their kids, what businesses people work at, and who is married to who.

“She’s just one of those people who knows everything,” Cole said. “She cares deeply about people.”

Cole said Schafer will do anything for anyone and recalled when her father, who is 90, was living in Gillette that she would go and pick him up and take him places just to help. She never “expected anything in return.”

Friends Step In

Following her hospital stay, Cole said her friend may not have her job or be able to work, and several friends are getting together to come up with a plan to help with her future. As a nurse, Cole believes if Schafer stayed with her, she could help with the medical needs her friend has in the process of recovery.

“She’s coming home with me,” she said. “If she’s willing, she will come here.”

Another friend, Tanya Myers who lives in Oregon, plans to fly to Denver to be with her friend on Tuesday. She said she met Schafer years ago when they both were newly divorced moms raising children alone.

“We became each other’s family and support system,” she said.

Schafer has experienced a lot of tragedy and loss in her life but has maintained a “beautiful heart,” Myers said.

Myers characterizes Schafer as “super intelligent” and someone who has an interest in Wyoming history and archaeology. She, too, shares that her friend is someone who gives to others without a thought.

“She doesn’t know a stranger,” she said. “She’s always volunteering and helping people.”

Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.