Three adults and six children perished in a South Memphis house fire early Monday morning in what officials called the city’s deadliest fire in nearly a century.
One other child pulled from the home in the 1100 block of Severson was clinging to life late Monday at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
Family members identified the adult victims as Carol Collier, 56; LaKisha Ward, 27; and Eloise Futrell, 61. They identified the children as Angel Mitchell, 17; Ernest Jett III, 9; Diamond Jett, 8, Alonzo Ward, 7; Kierra Jett, 5; and Precious Rose Jett, 2 or 3. Cameron Hollingsworth, who is 7 or 8, is the child at Le Bonheur.
“They got him on the life support. They said they need to give him some rest,” said Ernest Jett Sr., grandfather to all seven children. Jett got a call from his son while firefighters were still battling the blaze, and immediately drove up from Port Gibson, Mississippi.
This tragedy began at 1:23 a.m., when someone in the home used a cell phone to call 911, officials said. The first units from the Memphis Fire Department arrived on the scene four minutes later to find light smoke seeping from the small, one-story brick building.
Firefighters had to break a security door to get into the home, where they were confronted with heavy smoke. Most of the windows on the home had bars over them, apparently as a security measure.
But by the time firefighters made their way inside, there was little they could do to save lives. They pulled 10 people from the house, but all three adults and four of the children were pronounced dead at the scene. The three other children were rushed to Le Bonheur, but two died there. The fire was brought under control at 1:42 a.m., 19 minutes after the first call.
“I broke down crying. Those are my brothers and sisters. That was everything,” said 16-year-old sibling Brandon King, who lives elsewhere.
Neighbors said firefighters pulled victims from the house and laid them on the front lawn. The bodies were covered with a tarp.
MFD Director Gina Sweat said most of the victims appeared to have suffered from smoke inhalation, but that some were also burned.
MFD inspectors later determined that the home had a working smoke detector, and that the blaze was sparked by a malfunctioning power cord to an air-conditioning unit.
Sweat said it’s uncertain if the security bars prevented anyone from trying to escape out of the windows. While Sweat said that firefighters are trained to quickly remove such bars, she added that they do create a danger for people trying to escape a fire. She recommended a quick-release device that can be installed on windows.
According to family members on the scene, Ward — mother to one of the children — ironed their clothes for school the next day, then got ready for bed. Jett Jr. left to go to the store, family members said, but when he returned, he was confronted with the horrific scene.
A few hours after the fire, a large red toy truck and part of a bike on the porch remained undamaged. Friends and relatives ignored crime-scene tape and went inside the home to see the devastation.
“I’ve seen some hard things where we lost family members back-to-back, but never in a group like this. This is by far the hardest and most devastating thing ever,” said Jerry Brack, Futrell’s cousin.
Veronica Trammell, Ward’s mother and grandmother to Alonzo Ward, drove more than four hours from Fayette, Mississippi, to get to the scene.
Mary Whitmore, Collier’s sister, stood on the sidewalk outside the house crying Monday morning.
Futrell was the grandmother to all of the children who died.
Cummings Elementary School principal Key Coleman sent a message to parents at the school, informing them of the tragedy.
Futrell’s family walked around the burned house and saw glass knocked out of a back bedroom window, which didn’t have security bars like some of the others. Sofa cushions were stacked on the ground outside the window.
By early afternoon, people had started coming by the house offering prayer, condolences and food to family members.
Sweat said nothing in their training could prepare firefighters for such a heartbreaking event.
“It is times like these we are reminded of how precious, important and short our lives can be,” she added.
The fire was the most deadly blaze in Memphis since 1921, when 10 people were killed and dozens injured in an explosion involving a railroad tank car near Front Street and Mill Avenue.