Homeless Shelter Fire Fatal to 4 Children
Fire swept through a bedroom at a homeless shelter Saturday night, killing four children.
The fire broke out about 8 p.m. on the second floor of the Salvation Army’s Red Shield Homeless Center for Families, Fire Commissioner Harold Hairston said.
The children, ages 5 months, 1, 4 and 9, are all believed to be from one family, he said.
“I’m getting sort of sick of going to all of these fires when the deaths are always children,” Hairston said.
The mother, who was not injured, was taken to a hospital for observation.
The victims’ identities were not immediately released. The cause of the fire is being investigated.
The mother was talking on the pay phone in the hall when the fire started, Hairston said.
There have been 41 fire deaths in the city in 1995, 19 of them children.
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