Oklahoma City, OK Home For Handicapped Fire, Nov 1958

BLAZE KILLS 5 CHILDREN; 17 RESCUED.

HOLOCAUST DESTROYS OKLAHOMA HOME FOR HANDICAPPED YOUTH.

Oklahoma City (AP) -- Five youngsters died in a fire which swiftly engulfed a nine-room private home for handicapped children Thursday but 17 were heroically carried to safety amidst a light freezing rain.
"I should have saved all of them," sobbed MRS. MARY FLAKE, 58, who operates the home with her sister, MRS. MARGARET PRINCE, 50, and a daughter, CAROLYN FLAKE, 14.
They were making Thanksgiving Day plans when the fire struck suddenly about 7:30 a.m. and spread to an upstairs room where most of the 22 mentally retarded and invalid children were confined to their beds.
Working frantically against the smoke and flames, they managed to get some of the children to an outside upstairs sun porch. In the meantime, W. L. BROWN, 50, a next-door neighbor saw the smoke and yelled to his wife to call the fire department.
BROWN, a former naval officer, jumped a fence and hurried up the outside stairs into the children's quarters.
"The women already had pulled some of the children to the porch but I rushed in and picked up two or three in my arms and carried them outside and handed them across the fence to my daughter and wife. Some of the others we had to put on the ground until we could get them indoors." A couple driving by saw the flames and stopped to assist in bringing others to safety. They left before being identified.
BROWN said it appeared the fire had started beneath a stairway. Fire Chief HASKELL GRAVES said the fire was under control within 20 or 30 minutes but that the house was pretty well gutted by the time the nearby Bethany department and the Oklahoma City units arrived.
GRAVES said it was miraculous that all of the children didn't perish in the flames so fast did they sweep through the upstairs area. Firemen guessed that a gas heater could have caused the blaze.
One normal 2-year-old youngster was one of the victims. He was identified as MIKE ENGLER, the son of a Houston couple. MRS. FLAKE said she was keeping him over the weekend until the couple "got settled."
Another of the dead was MARY BUTLER, 4, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Harrell Butler, Oklahoma City. Butler is golf professional at the Oklahoma City Gold and Country Club.
The others were identified as MARY PRATT, 5, whose guardian was Wilson Wallace, Ardmore, Okla., attorney; JERRY NORSWORTHY, 3, son of Mrs. John Norsworthy, Oklahoma City, and LEE WILHELM, about 6 or 7, son of Mrs. John Hoyle, Oklahoma City.

Morning Herald Hagerstown Maryland 1958-11-28
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!