Sons die in fire while mom's in Iraq
'SHE'S DEVASTATED' Father pulls boys, ages 2 and 5, from room as smoke billows out window
January 5, 2010
BY STEFANO ESPOSITO Staff Reporter
If the dreaded news comes, it's supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.
That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home.
"She's devastated, and she is trying to hold on," said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers' father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims -- Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.
Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home -- perhaps as soon as Thursday.
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Sons die in fire while mom in Iraq
Showing posts with label fatal house fire. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fatal house fire. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Texas may have executed innocent man Cameron Todd Willingham
Texas may have executed innocent man
By Daniel Tencer
Published: August 26, 2009
A 1991 house fire in Corsicana, Texas, that sent three infant girls to their deaths and their father to the execution chamber was incorrectly ruled an arson, and may have in fact been accidental, says a report from a top fire scientist.
The report from renowned fire expert Craig Beyler, requested by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, casts doubt on death penalty supporters’ insistence that there are sufficient safeguards to prevent the innocent from being put to death. It will also likely raise new calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
The state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham by lethal injection on February 17, 2004, for the deaths of his daughters Amber, 2, and twins Karmon and Kameron, aged one. Willingham protested his innocence to the end.
If the Texas Forensic Science Commission accepts Beyler’s findings, “it could lead to the first-ever declaration by an official state body that an inmate was wrongly executed,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
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http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/26/texas-executed-innocent/
By Daniel Tencer
Published: August 26, 2009
A 1991 house fire in Corsicana, Texas, that sent three infant girls to their deaths and their father to the execution chamber was incorrectly ruled an arson, and may have in fact been accidental, says a report from a top fire scientist.
The report from renowned fire expert Craig Beyler, requested by the Texas Forensic Science Commission, casts doubt on death penalty supporters’ insistence that there are sufficient safeguards to prevent the innocent from being put to death. It will also likely raise new calls for the abolition of the death penalty.
The state of Texas executed Cameron Todd Willingham by lethal injection on February 17, 2004, for the deaths of his daughters Amber, 2, and twins Karmon and Kameron, aged one. Willingham protested his innocence to the end.
If the Texas Forensic Science Commission accepts Beyler’s findings, “it could lead to the first-ever declaration by an official state body that an inmate was wrongly executed,” reports the Chicago Tribune.
read more here
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/08/26/texas-executed-innocent/
Monday, November 24, 2008
Fast-moving fire kills three children in Cincinnati
Fast-moving fire kills three children
Published: Nov. 24, 2008 at 12:14 PM
CINCINNATI, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Cincinnati firefighters say they were too late to save three children who died early Monday in a house fire.
The children, all under the age of 10, died in a predawn fire that broke out in a home on State Avenue just blocks from the fire station that received the alarm.
Officials told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the two-story home was nearly engulfed in flames when the first fire equipment arrived.
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Published: Nov. 24, 2008 at 12:14 PM
CINCINNATI, Nov. 24 (UPI) -- Cincinnati firefighters say they were too late to save three children who died early Monday in a house fire.
The children, all under the age of 10, died in a predawn fire that broke out in a home on State Avenue just blocks from the fire station that received the alarm.
Officials told The Cincinnati Enquirer that the two-story home was nearly engulfed in flames when the first fire equipment arrived.
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Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Campbell wife charged in fire that killed kids
Campbell wife charged in fire that killed kids
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 14:19:49 EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A federal grand jury has charged a Fort Campbell soldier’s wife with setting a house fire on post that killed her two children.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kentucky announced Tuesday that Billi Jo Smallwood has been charged with maliciously setting fire to her home in March 2007. She is also charged with attempting to destroy a residential facility for members of the Army that caused the death of two minors.
Smallwood’s two children, 9-year-old Sam Fagan and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood, were killed in the fire and her husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, was injured.
Smallwood, 35, could face death or life imprisonment if convicted. A spokeswoman for the attorney’s office said Smallwood does not have an attorney and she is currently in federal custody.
The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 18, 2008 14:19:49 EST
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. — A federal grand jury has charged a Fort Campbell soldier’s wife with setting a house fire on post that killed her two children.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kentucky announced Tuesday that Billi Jo Smallwood has been charged with maliciously setting fire to her home in March 2007. She is also charged with attempting to destroy a residential facility for members of the Army that caused the death of two minors.
Smallwood’s two children, 9-year-old Sam Fagan and 2-year-old Rebekah Smallwood, were killed in the fire and her husband, Army Spc. Wayne Smallwood, was injured.
Smallwood, 35, could face death or life imprisonment if convicted. A spokeswoman for the attorney’s office said Smallwood does not have an attorney and she is currently in federal custody.
Monday, October 20, 2008
3 young sisters die in Pierce County fire
JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES
3 young sisters die in Pierce County fire
Eleven engines from area fire departments, including Graham Fire and Rescue, responded to the fire.
By Erik Lacitis
Seattle Times staff reporter
Sabrina Ballard hugs her husband, Leonard Ballard, in Graham on Sunday. An early-morning house fire claimed the lives of his three daughters, ages 10, 11 and 13.
Eleven engines from area fire departments, including Graham Fire and Rescue, responded to the fire.
A house fire claimed the lives of three sisters during a weekend visit at their father's house in Graham.
GRAHAM, Pierce County — They had no chance, the three sisters, who were visiting their dad for the weekend and died in an overnight house fire.
The flames shot 20 to 30 feet into the air, in minutes turning the wood-frame home into cinders, the asphalt shingles melting and literally drooping on what little remained of the roof.
And when flames prevented their father from reaching his daughters on the second floor, he ran outside and threw a ladder up against the house. But he could not save them.
Killed were Katelyn, 13; Emily, 11; and Michela Ballard, 10. Their father, Leonard Ballard, 39, and stepmother, Sabrina Ballard, 31, survived.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, but fire officials do not consider it suspicious. Gary Franz, deputy chief of Graham Fire and Rescue, said 11 engines from area fire departments responded to the blaze, which was reported early Sunday, just after midnight, and took an hour to get under control.
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