Three Children Perish in Miss. Blaze

Dec. 27, 2014
An early morning house fire in Byhalia claimed the lives of three children, ages 8 months, 1 and 2.

Three children, aged 2 and younger, were killed in a Mississippi house fire early Saturday, according to the Byhalia Fire Department in Marshall County, Mississippi.

Family members identified the victims, two boys and a girl, as 1-year-old A’Bel Tunstall, 2-year-old Ty’lynn Tunstall and 8-month-old Mic’Kayla Tunstall.

Latonya Tunstall, 26, the mother of A’Bel, said her mother was watching her son and her sister’s children when the fire broke out. The grandmother escaped and the cause of the fire was not known, Tunstall said.

She and her sister, Starkeisha Tunstall, were surrounded Saturday by loved ones at a relative’s house near the scene of the fire.

“He’s my baby,” Latonya Tunstall said as she looked at a photo of her son on her phone. “He’s very handsome. My baby’s gone.”

Toys were strewn about the yard at the site of the fire Saturday afternoon, as rain fell across the destroyed brick house cordoned off by yellow tape.

“They are very smart, intelligent, always outgoing, playing,” Tunstall said of the children who died. “We love them.”

Byhalia Fire Chief Leland Reed said the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

———

©2014 The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.)

Visit The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tenn.) at www.commercialappeal.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Voice Your Opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of Firehouse, create an account today!