4 Children Die in Decatur House Fire:North Church Street Blaze Latest in String of Youth Fatalities

DECATUR -- Four children died in a fire that engulfed a house at 1454 N. Church St. shortly before 3 a.m. Saturday.

The deaths bring the toll of Decatur youngsters to die because of fire in the last 10 days to eight.

Killed in the fire were two boys, Jovan J.J. Smith, 5, and Jarrell J. Smith, 1, and their sisters, Jayda J. Smith, 7, and Jaleel J. Smith, 4.

Their mother, Annette Smith, 24, escaped the house to summon help. She was treated at Decatur Memorial Hospital for minor injuries.

Sean Stolley lives in a house two doors south of 1454 N. Church St. He said he was awakened by a woman pounding on the door of his house in an effort to find a telephone to call the fire department.

Stolley said his brother called the fire department while he assisted the woman.

"We stood outside for four hours, and we never saw them bring the children out," Stolley said.

Macon County Coroner Michael Day set the official time of death at 4:36 a.m. Saturday. He said an inquest will be scheduled.

Day said autopsies will be conducted today at Memorial Medical Center, Springfield, to determine the cause of death. He said the children "suffered extreme heat-related injuries to the surface of their bodies," which will make the autopsies difficult.

Three of the children were found in the upstairs of the house and one downstairs, Day said. However, authorities believe all four children were sleeping upstairs when the fire began, and the collapse of portions of the house during the blaze brought one body to the lower level, he said.

"This fire, coupled with the tragedies in the last 10 days, is very saddening," Day said.

Three children died as the result of a house fire Jan. 29 at 2904 E. Division St. A 13-year-old girl died Thursday when she caught fire while gasoline was being used to burn leaves in the yard of her home in the 1900 block of North 32nd Street.

A cause for Saturday's fire has not been determined, said Decatur Fire Marshal David Rozanski. The house was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived after receiving a 911 call at 2:58 a.m., he said.

Fire Station No. 1 is less than two blocks from the house. The first firefighters arrived within two minutes after the alarm was received, said Decatur Mayor Terry Howley, who was notified of the fire by City Manager Steve Garman.

"The fire was burning through the roof with four kids in there when the first firefighters got here," Rozanski said. "They had trouble getting into the house. The structure was fully involved. About 30 minutes into the fire, the roof collapsed."

Several firefighters suffered minor injuries battling the fire, Rozanski said. It took about an hour to extinguish the blaze.

One smoke detector was discovered in the basement, but whether it had been working had not been determined Saturday morning, Rozanski said.

Police and fire department personnel were investigating the blaze, which is standard procedure in a fatal fire, Rozanski said.

A 48-year-old Decatur man, who neighbors said may be the landlord who owned the North Church Street house, was arrested at the scene by police on an outstanding warrant. The warrant indicates the man failed to appear in court to pay a $100 fine for city ordinance violations. It could not be learned Saturday what the violations were or to what property they applied.

Ulesey White stood outside the burned-out house late Saturday morning, viewing the destruction. He said he previously had lived in the house.

"The electricity was all screwed up in there," White said. "You'd turn on the light in the living room and the light in the kitchen would come on. The sewer was backed up into the basement."

Mearl and Dianna Jones live on the north side of the burned-out home. He was watching television and she was sleeping shortly before 3 a.m.

"I woke up and smelled smoke and heard the crackling of the wood burning," said Dianna Jones. She then got up and asked her husband if he smelled the smoke. He did.

"I opened the (front) door and the blaze was coming out of the windows and both the upstairs and downstairs were totally in flames," Mearl Jones said. His wife called the fire department.

Mearl Jones said the woman who lived next door had kept to herself, rarely coming out of the house, and he did not know her name. He said she did tell him on one occasion that she "had to crank up the furnace to keep it warm in the house."

A number of windows on the burned-out house were boarded up prior to the fire, and the landlord had done little to keep up the property, Mearl Jones said.

Jones family members said they remember several other fires occurring at the house during the 1990s. Herald & Review records show a fire in May 1996 in an upstairs bedroom did an estimated $5,000 damage.

Saturday's fire was so intense, the windows and siding were damaged on the house at 1446 N. Church St. immediately south of the burned-out structure.