Wilmington Illinois, Circa November 6, 1942.
FATHER, CHILD DIE IN TRAILER FIRE
2 SONS ESCAPE IN FATAL BLAZE AT WILMINGTON
A. V. McGuffey, 39, EOP Worker, 8-Year-Old Daughter Victims
A munitions plant employee and his eight-year-old daughter were burned to death in a trailer camp fire in Wilmington at 2 o'clock this morning.
The man's two sons, one 15 years old and the other 13, saved their lives by making a desperate dash in their night clothing thru a flaming doorway.
The father was Alonzo Vance McGuffey, 39 years old, a pipefitter employed at the Elwood Ordnance Plant, whose hometown was Kilgore, Tex. His daughter's name was Audra Juanell McGuffey, and she died in her bed without waking from her sleep.
Mother, Older Girl Away
James McGuffey, 15, and Ronald, 13, heard the fire and ran outside. When they learned that their father and little sister were still in the burning trailer they tried to return to save them but the fiber-board structure was like a furnace.
The mother of the family and another daughter, June, 17 years old, were away. June was visiting friends at Fairfield, Ill. and Mrs. McGuffey had gone to Troy yesterday to look for a house to rent, and was staying overnight with Mr. and Mrs. Claude Hyatt, of that village.
Cause Undertimed
Authorities today could establish no cause for the fire, which spread to an unoccupied trailer and destroyed it. There are 200 trailers in the camp, built by the goverment for munitions plant families on route 66-A just inside the east limits of the Wilmington city limits. Approximately 800 persons reside in the camp, but the fire caused no panic among them.
The trailer occupied by the McGuffey family had three rooms and three doors. O.L. Addleman, Wilmington undertaker, and deputy coroner, who recovered the charred bodies this morning, said the child's was in the bed and the father's was on the floor near a door on the west end of the trailer.
Started in the Kitched
One of the boys, Ronald, told George A. Fairhead, superintendant of the camp, that he thought the fire started in the kitchen, and suggested it might have been set off by electrical wiring.
Fairhead reported to Deputy Coroner Addleman that the fire started at 2 o'clock and the cause is unknown.
Mrs. Herbert Kissee, occuping the trailer on the east side of the McGuffey trailer, said she was awakened at about 2 o'clock by a noise "like somebody pounding". She called her husband who looked outside and saw the two McGuffey boys running out of their trailer in their night clothes. They ran right thru a mass of flames, then they stopped.
Boys Tried to Return
Kissee ran to them and asked who else was inside.
The boys said they did not know, and when they could not find their father or Audra Juanell they had to be restrained from going back into the inferno.
Mrs. Buell Sims, living in a nearby trailer, helped console the boys. All of the other families soon were aroused.
A Wilmington city fire hydrant in the camp was turned on and Kissee threw water over his trailer and kept it from catching fire until the city fire department arrived.
FATHER, CHILD DIE IN TRAILER FIRE
2 SONS ESCAPE IN FATAL BLAZE AT WILMINGTON
A. V. McGuffey, 39, EOP Worker, 8-Year-Old Daughter Victims
A munitions plant employee and his eight-year-old daughter were burned to death in a trailer camp fire in Wilmington at 2 o'clock this morning.
The man's two sons, one 15 years old and the other 13, saved their lives by making a desperate dash in their night clothing thru a flaming doorway.
The father was Alonzo Vance McGuffey, 39 years old, a pipefitter employed at the Elwood Ordnance Plant, whose hometown was Kilgore, Tex. His daughter's name was Audra Juanell McGuffey, and she died in her bed without waking from her sleep.
Mother, Older Girl Away
James McGuffey, 15, and Ronald, 13, heard the fire and ran outside. When they learned that their father and little sister were still in the burning trailer they tried to return to save them but the fiber-board structure was like a furnace.
The mother of the family and another daughter, June, 17 years old, were away. June was visiting friends at Fairfield, Ill. and Mrs. McGuffey had gone to Troy yesterday to look for a house to rent, and was staying overnight with Mr. and Mrs. Claude Hyatt, of that village.
Cause Undertimed
Authorities today could establish no cause for the fire, which spread to an unoccupied trailer and destroyed it. There are 200 trailers in the camp, built by the goverment for munitions plant families on route 66-A just inside the east limits of the Wilmington city limits. Approximately 800 persons reside in the camp, but the fire caused no panic among them.
The trailer occupied by the McGuffey family had three rooms and three doors. O.L. Addleman, Wilmington undertaker, and deputy coroner, who recovered the charred bodies this morning, said the child's was in the bed and the father's was on the floor near a door on the west end of the trailer.
Started in the Kitched
One of the boys, Ronald, told George A. Fairhead, superintendant of the camp, that he thought the fire started in the kitchen, and suggested it might have been set off by electrical wiring.
Fairhead reported to Deputy Coroner Addleman that the fire started at 2 o'clock and the cause is unknown.
Mrs. Herbert Kissee, occuping the trailer on the east side of the McGuffey trailer, said she was awakened at about 2 o'clock by a noise "like somebody pounding". She called her husband who looked outside and saw the two McGuffey boys running out of their trailer in their night clothes. They ran right thru a mass of flames, then they stopped.
Boys Tried to Return
Kissee ran to them and asked who else was inside.
The boys said they did not know, and when they could not find their father or Audra Juanell they had to be restrained from going back into the inferno.
Mrs. Buell Sims, living in a nearby trailer, helped console the boys. All of the other families soon were aroused.
A Wilmington city fire hydrant in the camp was turned on and Kissee threw water over his trailer and kept it from catching fire until the city fire department arrived.
Wilmington Illinois, Circa November 6, 1942.
FATHER, CHILD DIE IN TRAILER FIRE
2 SONS ESCAPE IN FATAL BLAZE AT WILMINGTON
A. V. McGuffey, 39, EOP Worker, 8-Year-Old Daughter Victims
A munitions plant employee and his eight-year-old daughter were burned to death in a trailer camp fire in Wilmington at 2 o'clock this morning.
The man's two sons, one 15 years old and the other 13, saved their lives by making a desperate dash in their night clothing thru a flaming doorway.
The father was Alonzo Vance McGuffey, 39 years old, a pipefitter employed at the Elwood Ordnance Plant, whose hometown was Kilgore, Tex. His daughter's name was Audra Juanell McGuffey, and she died in her bed without waking from her sleep.
Mother, Older Girl Away
James McGuffey, 15, and Ronald, 13, heard the fire and ran outside. When they learned that their father and little sister were still in the burning trailer they tried to return to save them but the fiber-board structure was like a furnace.
The mother of the family and another daughter, June, 17 years old, were away. June was visiting friends at Fairfield, Ill. and Mrs. McGuffey had gone to Troy yesterday to look for a house to rent, and was staying overnight with Mr. and Mrs. Claude Hyatt, of that village.
Cause Undertimed
Authorities today could establish no cause for the fire, which spread to an unoccupied trailer and destroyed it. There are 200 trailers in the camp, built by the goverment for munitions plant families on route 66-A just inside the east limits of the Wilmington city limits. Approximately 800 persons reside in the camp, but the fire caused no panic among them.
The trailer occupied by the McGuffey family had three rooms and three doors. O.L. Addleman, Wilmington undertaker, and deputy coroner, who recovered the charred bodies this morning, said the child's was in the bed and the father's was on the floor near a door on the west end of the trailer.
Started in the Kitched
One of the boys, Ronald, told George A. Fairhead, superintendant of the camp, that he thought the fire started in the kitchen, and suggested it might have been set off by electrical wiring.
Fairhead reported to Deputy Coroner Addleman that the fire started at 2 o'clock and the cause is unknown.
Mrs. Herbert Kissee, occuping the trailer on the east side of the McGuffey trailer, said she was awakened at about 2 o'clock by a noise "like somebody pounding". She called her husband who looked outside and saw the two McGuffey boys running out of their trailer in their night clothes. They ran right thru a mass of flames, then they stopped.
Boys Tried to Return
Kissee ran to them and asked who else was inside.
The boys said they did not know, and when they could not find their father or Audra Juanell they had to be restrained from going back into the inferno.
Mrs. Buell Sims, living in a nearby trailer, helped console the boys. All of the other families soon were aroused.
A Wilmington city fire hydrant in the camp was turned on and Kissee threw water over his trailer and kept it from catching fire until the city fire department arrived.
FATHER, CHILD DIE IN TRAILER FIRE
2 SONS ESCAPE IN FATAL BLAZE AT WILMINGTON
A. V. McGuffey, 39, EOP Worker, 8-Year-Old Daughter Victims
A munitions plant employee and his eight-year-old daughter were burned to death in a trailer camp fire in Wilmington at 2 o'clock this morning.
The man's two sons, one 15 years old and the other 13, saved their lives by making a desperate dash in their night clothing thru a flaming doorway.
The father was Alonzo Vance McGuffey, 39 years old, a pipefitter employed at the Elwood Ordnance Plant, whose hometown was Kilgore, Tex. His daughter's name was Audra Juanell McGuffey, and she died in her bed without waking from her sleep.
Mother, Older Girl Away
James McGuffey, 15, and Ronald, 13, heard the fire and ran outside. When they learned that their father and little sister were still in the burning trailer they tried to return to save them but the fiber-board structure was like a furnace.
The mother of the family and another daughter, June, 17 years old, were away. June was visiting friends at Fairfield, Ill. and Mrs. McGuffey had gone to Troy yesterday to look for a house to rent, and was staying overnight with Mr. and Mrs. Claude Hyatt, of that village.
Cause Undertimed
Authorities today could establish no cause for the fire, which spread to an unoccupied trailer and destroyed it. There are 200 trailers in the camp, built by the goverment for munitions plant families on route 66-A just inside the east limits of the Wilmington city limits. Approximately 800 persons reside in the camp, but the fire caused no panic among them.
The trailer occupied by the McGuffey family had three rooms and three doors. O.L. Addleman, Wilmington undertaker, and deputy coroner, who recovered the charred bodies this morning, said the child's was in the bed and the father's was on the floor near a door on the west end of the trailer.
Started in the Kitched
One of the boys, Ronald, told George A. Fairhead, superintendant of the camp, that he thought the fire started in the kitchen, and suggested it might have been set off by electrical wiring.
Fairhead reported to Deputy Coroner Addleman that the fire started at 2 o'clock and the cause is unknown.
Mrs. Herbert Kissee, occuping the trailer on the east side of the McGuffey trailer, said she was awakened at about 2 o'clock by a noise "like somebody pounding". She called her husband who looked outside and saw the two McGuffey boys running out of their trailer in their night clothes. They ran right thru a mass of flames, then they stopped.
Boys Tried to Return
Kissee ran to them and asked who else was inside.
The boys said they did not know, and when they could not find their father or Audra Juanell they had to be restrained from going back into the inferno.
Mrs. Buell Sims, living in a nearby trailer, helped console the boys. All of the other families soon were aroused.
A Wilmington city fire hydrant in the camp was turned on and Kissee threw water over his trailer and kept it from catching fire until the city fire department arrived.
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