In a matter of minutes one night this March, Sarah Butler's life became "a horrible nightmare." She discovered her house on Artis Drive, west of Dover, had caught fire just after 9 p.m. on March 28. Suddenly, the 83-year-old was searching for clothes as the fire gained strength and spread throughout her ranch home. Using her walker to help her locate something to wear outside on the chilly night, everything quickly turned black. "I've never saw such dark smoke, and I've seen many fires. But I never saw smoke like this, and I was trying to get dressed to get out," Ms. Butler said recently as she recalled the event. "I went to my bedroom and the smoke hit me so hard that I couldn't get in to get any clothes. So I was across the hallway and I thought for sure I could get something out of my daughter's closet. But when we opened it up, the smoke just hit us.