JOEL ANDERSON
St. Petersburg Times

SPRING HILL - One neighbor would come over to mow the yard. Another allowed them to borrow a car to run errands. Other friends regularly checked to see if they needed anything done around the home.

In return, Trudy Kemper occasionally made them dinner. Tamerla Kemper would take their dogs for a walk. In the 3300 block of Seaview Drive, such support is the neighborhood currency.

But Tuesday night, as their small mobile home burned down around them, Trudy and Tamerla Kemper were simply beyond the help of their friends. The 66-year-old mother and 34-year-old daughter died in a fire that Hernando County sheriff's deputies believe was accidental and might have started in the wiring in the wall.

"We knew they were inside," said Tim Martin, a neighbor who returned to the scene Wednesday to place flowers near a palm tree in front of the house. "It was just a helpless feeling."

"It was horrible," said Paul Smith, a neighbor of the Kempers for the past 14 years. "We all felt sort of helpless."

A dachshund and a beagle-dachshund mix also died. A third dog, a chihuahua, was pulled out of the fire but ran away.

Matthew Kemper - Trudy's son, Tamerla's brother and a veteran firefighter-paramedic with Pasco County Fire Rescue - arrived late Wednesday morning with about 20 firefighters who boarded up the windows of the gutted home with plywood and tried to offer comfort.

"He lost his entire family," said Capt. Shawn Whited of Pasco Fire Rescue. "He's not doing very good right now."

Times photographer Will Vragovic contributed to this report.

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September 23, 2010