Very Sad News About the Smiling Bartender!

On Tuesday, April 12, we visited the Brass Monkey where we enjoyed a selection from the five dollar lunch menu. Although we had only met Nancy, the Monkey's bartender, on two previous occasions, she greeted us with her warm smile.

We enjoyed lunch and our conversation with Nancy.

A couple of days later, we learned that this wonderful person had perished in a house fire.

The following is the story that ran at KeysNews.com:

Fire kills woman, injures husband

Brass Monkey Lounge mourns loss of 'smiling' bartender

BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com

A well-known Marathon bartender died in a house fire early Thursday, leaving behind a husband who was injured while unsuccessfully trying to rescue her from the blaze, sheriff and fire officials said.

Firefighters pulled 50-year-old Nancy Pratt, a Brass Monkey Lounge employee, from a second-floor hallway at the couple's home shortly after midnight, but were unable to revive her, Marathon Fire Chief William Wagner said. "Unfortunately, she had already succumbed to the fire and smoke."

Ernest Pratt, 46, was outside, seriously injured from the heat and smoke inhalation, when firefighters arrived to find the house at 1203 Westward Ho Lane engulfed in flames, Wagner said.

Pratt reportedly told firefighters that smoke alarms had woken him, then he found the back porch on fire and called 911, according to a Monroe County Sheriff's Office press release.

That's when the glass doors to the porch exploded from the heat, burning his back, he told them. He said he tried to get his wife out of the house, but finally was forced to flee as the flames spread, according to the Sheriff's Office release.

"He tried to get her out, but at that point he just couldn't do it," Wagner said. "The flames were through the roof when we arrived."

Nancy Pratt was pronounced dead at the scene, and Ernest Pratt was taken to Fishermen's Hospital, then transferred to a Miami hospital for respiratory injuries, Wagner said.

Wagner and Monroe County Fire Rescue Chief Jim Callahan did not know his condition or to which hospital he was admitted.

The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating what caused the blaze; there were no obvious signs Thursday, Wagner said.

"The report indicates that they were smokers who didn't smoke in the house, but on the back porch," Wagner said. "It appears the porch was the origin, but we can't say that [smoking] was the cause at this time."

Firefighters initially thought there might be a child inside the house after neighbors also called 911, Wagner said.

"Crews immediately laddered and entered through the second floor and that's when we found [Nancy Pratt] in the hallway," he said.

Red Cross volunteer and response coordinator Shannon Vasko, who is working to help Ernest Pratt when he is released from the hospital, said this fire is more personal than others. She knew Nancy.

"Nancy was such wonderful person," Vasko said.

"Everyone knows her from the Brass Monkey, where she always had a smile on her face. I think all of us will be coming together as a community to assist Ernest on a personal level."

alinhardt@keysnews.com

Nancy will certainly be missed by her family, her friends, and all of the patrons of the Brass Monkey!