Karen Carstens (pictured) tragically died in a fire at her home in the United States after she went back into the blazing property to save her cats.
Ms. Carstens died from her injuries after being rushed to a local hospital. There were two cats inside when the fire broke out in the basement around 5.45am on 7 April, according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue. One cat died and another was found later in the day. The other occupant of the house, the brother of Ms. Carstens, survived.
According to reports in The Washington Times firefighters were originally told no one was inside the house. Carstens had apparently evacuated with her brother but went back inside to get her cat. It is thought the fire was accidental and the house did not have working smoke alarms. The exact cause of the fire is being investigated.
Ms Carstens was born in Washington DC and attended the University of Maryland, graduating in multimedia journalism before working in Brussels for the now defunct European Voice weekly newspaper. She also freelanced for other publications based in the city.
After leaving Brussels, she wrote, edited news and features and a produced weekly electronic newsletter for the German Embassy in Washington DC for seven years.
She then worked for a year as a health writer for the Military Health System site Health.mil and as a communications consultant for the International Finance Corporation. From 2015 she had worked as a freelance writer, editor and translator in her native north America.
She was very active on social media and recently posted that she “missed all the anglophone writers and editors” she had worked with in Brussels, which she said she had been happy to “call home”.
Former colleague at EV, David Cronin, led tributes to her and told this site: “Between 2002 and 2005, I spent many hours working and socializing with Karen in Brussels. She was constantly smiling and seemed to have a boundless capacity for fun, cheer and enthusiasm.
“The only time I can recall her being less than enthusiastic about anything was when she accompanied me to a gig by a band called The Cramps. The racket they kicked up wasn’t exactly to her taste!
“I owe an immense personal debt of gratitude to Karen as she persuaded me (gently) that I should join a gym. That was the first and necessary step I took towards looking after my health properly. I haven’t seen Karen in real life since she moved back to America about 20 years ago. But I regularly saw her Facebook updates about her beloved cats.
“It is deeply tragic that she died trying to rescue them. Equally, it illustrates that she was big-hearted right to the very end.”
Another colleague at the paper, James Drew, said, “I had the pleasure of working with Karen during my early days in Brussels at European Voice – I always found her to be a very warm, kind diligent and intelligent person, and one who will be very sadly missed.”
Her former editor at EV, Dennis Abbott said: “I was deeply shocked by the news.
“As I wrote on my FB page, Karen was a lovely person and a talented journalist. I hired her when I was Editor of European Voice in 2002. She was a positive presence in the newsroom and someone I appreciated a lot. It’s hard to believe she’s gone. I keep seeing her in my mind’s eye.
“We stayed in touch over the years via Facebook. She loved her cats and it seems she was trying to rescue one of them after a fire broke out at her home when she was overcome.
Peter Chapman, another ex-colleague, also voiced shock at the news of her death, adding that “she was one of the warmest humans I ever knew.”
Craig Winneker, who also worked with Ms Carstens in Brussels, said, “Karen was a lively and fun person, who brought more than just journalistic skill to the newsroom: she also brought joy. After she moved back to the US I had been in touch with her mainly on social media, sharing a love of good music and online word games
Leave a Reply