Fire Kills 7 Children Left Home Alone, Trapped by Window Bars

A fire on Wednesday killed seven children ages 9 and under who were left home alone and became trapped by bars on the windows of their two-story wooden house, officials said.

The victims were found in one room and apparently had pushed a dresser up to a window in an attempt to escape, Battalion Chief Harold Watkins said. He added that the windows had padlocked burglar bars on them.

The children were asphyxiated by smoke, Fire Marshal Richard Milliner said. He said the cause of the fire in the house on the city’s east side was not known.

Homicide investigators were called in because the children’s parents had left them alone, fire department spokesman Rodney Parnell said.

The parents arrived about 20 minutes after the fire was reported, asking about the children, according to a broadcast report. After going to the hospital, the mother was taken to police headquarters for questioning, WDIV-TV reported. It was not immediately clear where the father was.

“We smelled smoke and I had my kids running up and down our house. We thought our house was on fire,” said Cynthia Taylor, a next-door neighbor. “Then I saw the truck pull up and I knew it was the house next door.

“I was praying the older kids were in school and (the mother) had the little ones with her, but then I saw them bring the little kids out.”

Taylor said the family had lived in the house for about 2 1/2 years. Members kept keeping mostly to themselves.

The four boys and three girls who died had the same father and all but one had the same mother, said Dan Artman, a spokesman for Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Parnell identified the victims as Lawanda Williams, 9; Nikia Williams, 7; Dakwan Williams, 6; Laquint Lyons, 4; Venus Lyons, 2; Anthony Lyons, 7 months, and Mark Bray, 2.

It was the second time in 4 1/2 months that security devices on windows trapped people in a burning Detroit house. An Oct. 3 fire killed four adults and two children.