Saginaw, MI House Fire, Sept 1949

4 Children Die in Fire

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP). - Four young children were burned to death in their home early Tuesday after flames repulsed their monther's rescue attempt.

A fifth child jumped from an upstairs window and died a few hours later at a local hospital.

Victims were Samuel Walters, 14; his sisters, Mary, 12, and Angeline, 8, and his brothers, George, 4, and Walter Jr., 3.

Their mother, Mrs. Cleo Walters, a 34-year-old divorced waitress, was suddeenly awakened by the explosion of an oil stove. She rushed to the stairway and found it crackling with flames. Her children were trapped in an upstairs bedroom.

After vainly trying to mount the stairs, Mrs. Walters ran to the nearby home of a relative, her night clothing blackened by flames.

Meanwhile, Mary jumped from a window. She landed on a gravel sidewalk, her body covered with second-degree burns.

In the charred bedroom, firemen found one child's body under the bed, another hudlled against the wall and the other two in the bed.

The Walla Walla Union Bulletin, Walla Walla, WA, 6 Sept 1949
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Transcribed by Tim Taugher. Thanks, Tim!