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2 children dead in W.Va. house fire

Medics transported the children, ages 9 and 3, to the hospital where they were pronounced dead

By Ryan Quinn
The Charleston Gazette

SCOTT DEPOT, W.Va. — Two young children died in a house fire Sunday morning at the Nottingham Mobile Home Park in Scott Depot.

A 9-year-old boy and his 3-year-old sister were taken by ambulance to CAMC Teays Valley Hospital, where they were pronounced dead, said Chief Deputy Eric Hayzlett of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department.

Assistant State Fire Marshal Shawn Alderman said they died of smoke inhalation. He said the two children’s 7-year-old brother accidentally lit living room curtains ablaze while playing with a lighter. The boy escaped and was treated at the hospital for smoke inhalation, the sheriff’s department said.

The children’s names have not yet been released.

An adult babysitter who lived in the mobile home was also home at the time of the fire, and she was also able to escape. Alderman said it appeared the babysitter had tried to put the fire out with a pan of water. Alderman said two women, one of them the mother of the children, lived in the home with the children and the babysitter.

The emergency call came at about 10:45 Sunday morning, according to Capt. Jonathan Smoot of the Teays Valley Fire Department.

There was heavy fire and smoke coming from the double-wide mobile home on Robin Hood Lane when they arrived, Smoot said. The fire was primarily in the central kitchen-living room area, Smoot said.

Smoot said they found the two children in their bedrooms after some people outside told them where they were located.

“We got the fire knocked down and made an interior search and had the kids out within a few minutes,” he said.

A dog they found in the home also died, Smoot said. The State Police, the sheriff’s department and fire departments from Hurricane, Winfield, Nitro, Bancroft and Culloden also responded to the scene, Smoot said.

Neighbors said they didn’t know the victims well. Dallas Walker, 76, lives right across from the trailer that caught fire. He said he awoke this morning and saw smoke pouring in his kitchen window.

“I thought my damn house was on fire,” Walker said.

Joseph Turner, 34, said that when he came out of his home to see the fire the trailer was already engulfed in flames. He said he heard people breaking windows and trying to get the children to come through.

“It was just a horrible, horrible day,” he said.

Staff writer David Gutman contributed to this report.

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(c)2014 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.)

Distributed by MCT Information Services

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