Fire Kills 6; Mother Had Angered Drug Dealers

A woman who neighbors said tried to force drug dealers off her street corner was killed, along with five of her children, when fire tore through their home Wednesday.

It was the second fire to strike the corner row house in two weeks, investigators said.

The only survivor of Wednesday’s fire was the woman’s husband, who was critically injured. He suffered third-degree burns and jumped from a second-floor window, fire officials said.

Investigators had not determined late Wednesday what caused the 2:30 a.m. fire.

In the first fire, a “cocktail bomb” was thrown through the kitchen window as the family slept, about the same time as Wednesday’s fire, neighbors said. The woman’s husband woke in time to put out the flames.

Neighbor Gerlena Jackson said the woman killed, whom she identified as Angela Dawson, had argued for weeks with a group of teenage boys who hung out on the corner dealing drugs.

“They had words, they had confrontations. She was threatened,” Jackson said. “She was a concerned mother, just like us all.”

The family boarded the window after the first fire, but Dawson didn’t stop sparring with the teens, Jackson said.

The victims were found on the second and third floors and appeared to have died of smoke inhalation and burns, fire department spokesman Kevin Cartwright said.

Officials did not immediately release their names. Neighbors and principals at the children’s schools identified those killed as Carnell Dawson and Juan Ortiz, both fifth-graders; twins Kevin and Keith Dawson, both third-graders; and LaWanda Ortiz, a seventh-grader.

Dawson’s husband, Carnell Dawson Sr., was hospitalized in critical condition.

Neighbor Geraldine Lee, 59, said she saw flames coming out of the windows of the brick row house about 3 a.m.

“I don’t even see how the firemen could have gotten in that house,” Lee said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms also is investigating the fire’s cause, Cartwright said.