Sad Reminders Of Fire Linger
HAMPTON — One of Felicia Smith's last assignments before Christmas vacation lay on her empty desk in a third-grade classroom at Moton Elementary School Tuesday afternoon.
Across the top of the page, in pencil, her teacher had indicated a perfect score on the assignment to match words with their opposites.
Three of the 11 matches - happy with sad, high with low and laughed with cried - could be used to describe the mood in the halls, classrooms and hearts of students and teachers at Moton and nearby Jane Bryan Elementary Tuesday. Felicia, 9, attended Jane Bryan last year. Her two sisters, Cassandra Walters, 8, and Corina Combs, 6, were enrolled there this school year. Tuesday morning, all three perished in a blaze at their Phoebus home; firefighters said it appeared they died of smoke inhalation while dressing for school in their second-floor bedroom.
City Fire Marshal Carl Wallace said the girls probably would have escaped had there been a smoke detector in the frame house at 14 Tennis Lane. He criticized the federal program that subsidized their mother's rent payments but does not require smoke detectors.
He said the fire appeared to have started in a couch in the living room just below the girls' bedroom. It appeared accidental, he said this morning, but the cause had not been determined.
The girls' mother, Barbara Combs, and her 5-month-old son, Emmanuel, were listed in serious but stable condition late Tuesday in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's burn trauma unit. A hospital official said the mother received first- and second-degree burns over 25 percent of her body, including face, arms, back, left shoulder and a hand. The infant received less serious burns over 8 percent of his body. He was to be transferred today to Childrens' Hospital of the King's Daughters.
One other person in the house, Ronald Fleming, 28, escaped without injury, said fire department spokesman Mike Gabany.
At the two schools, the news of the deaths moved some teachers and classmates to tears and prompted questions from students no one could answer. Felicia's teacher, Carolyn Graham, placed her former pupil's perfect paper on the desk and left it there. She told Felicia's classmates it was all right to cry and express their feelings.
At Jane Bryan Elementary School, the words, "Remembering" appeared at the top of a poster on the hallway wall. Photographs of Cassandra, a second-grader, and Corina, a kindergartner, were atop two brief letters principal Eunice Frazier wrote to students and teachers.
"We will remember Cassandra as a person who always shared. She was nice and kind to others. She was friendly and helpful. She was good," one of the letters stated.
When Marievelyn Hughey, Corina's kindergarten teacher, told the children that Corina had died in a house fire, she said, one child asked: "Does that mean we won't ever see her again?"
When another pupil asked if Corina's clothes were burned, Hughey said another child answered, "That won't matter. She'll get angel clothes."
(Source: Daily Press newspaper, January 04, 1989 by David Chernicky, Staff Writer)
-----------
She is buried beside her two sisters.
HAMPTON — One of Felicia Smith's last assignments before Christmas vacation lay on her empty desk in a third-grade classroom at Moton Elementary School Tuesday afternoon.
Across the top of the page, in pencil, her teacher had indicated a perfect score on the assignment to match words with their opposites.
Three of the 11 matches - happy with sad, high with low and laughed with cried - could be used to describe the mood in the halls, classrooms and hearts of students and teachers at Moton and nearby Jane Bryan Elementary Tuesday. Felicia, 9, attended Jane Bryan last year. Her two sisters, Cassandra Walters, 8, and Corina Combs, 6, were enrolled there this school year. Tuesday morning, all three perished in a blaze at their Phoebus home; firefighters said it appeared they died of smoke inhalation while dressing for school in their second-floor bedroom.
City Fire Marshal Carl Wallace said the girls probably would have escaped had there been a smoke detector in the frame house at 14 Tennis Lane. He criticized the federal program that subsidized their mother's rent payments but does not require smoke detectors.
He said the fire appeared to have started in a couch in the living room just below the girls' bedroom. It appeared accidental, he said this morning, but the cause had not been determined.
The girls' mother, Barbara Combs, and her 5-month-old son, Emmanuel, were listed in serious but stable condition late Tuesday in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's burn trauma unit. A hospital official said the mother received first- and second-degree burns over 25 percent of her body, including face, arms, back, left shoulder and a hand. The infant received less serious burns over 8 percent of his body. He was to be transferred today to Childrens' Hospital of the King's Daughters.
One other person in the house, Ronald Fleming, 28, escaped without injury, said fire department spokesman Mike Gabany.
At the two schools, the news of the deaths moved some teachers and classmates to tears and prompted questions from students no one could answer. Felicia's teacher, Carolyn Graham, placed her former pupil's perfect paper on the desk and left it there. She told Felicia's classmates it was all right to cry and express their feelings.
At Jane Bryan Elementary School, the words, "Remembering" appeared at the top of a poster on the hallway wall. Photographs of Cassandra, a second-grader, and Corina, a kindergartner, were atop two brief letters principal Eunice Frazier wrote to students and teachers.
"We will remember Cassandra as a person who always shared. She was nice and kind to others. She was friendly and helpful. She was good," one of the letters stated.
When Marievelyn Hughey, Corina's kindergarten teacher, told the children that Corina had died in a house fire, she said, one child asked: "Does that mean we won't ever see her again?"
When another pupil asked if Corina's clothes were burned, Hughey said another child answered, "That won't matter. She'll get angel clothes."
(Source: Daily Press newspaper, January 04, 1989 by David Chernicky, Staff Writer)
-----------
She is buried beside her two sisters.
Sad Reminders Of Fire Linger
HAMPTON — One of Felicia Smith's last assignments before Christmas vacation lay on her empty desk in a third-grade classroom at Moton Elementary School Tuesday afternoon.
Across the top of the page, in pencil, her teacher had indicated a perfect score on the assignment to match words with their opposites.
Three of the 11 matches - happy with sad, high with low and laughed with cried - could be used to describe the mood in the halls, classrooms and hearts of students and teachers at Moton and nearby Jane Bryan Elementary Tuesday. Felicia, 9, attended Jane Bryan last year. Her two sisters, Cassandra Walters, 8, and Corina Combs, 6, were enrolled there this school year. Tuesday morning, all three perished in a blaze at their Phoebus home; firefighters said it appeared they died of smoke inhalation while dressing for school in their second-floor bedroom.
City Fire Marshal Carl Wallace said the girls probably would have escaped had there been a smoke detector in the frame house at 14 Tennis Lane. He criticized the federal program that subsidized their mother's rent payments but does not require smoke detectors.
He said the fire appeared to have started in a couch in the living room just below the girls' bedroom. It appeared accidental, he said this morning, but the cause had not been determined.
The girls' mother, Barbara Combs, and her 5-month-old son, Emmanuel, were listed in serious but stable condition late Tuesday in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's burn trauma unit. A hospital official said the mother received first- and second-degree burns over 25 percent of her body, including face, arms, back, left shoulder and a hand. The infant received less serious burns over 8 percent of his body. He was to be transferred today to Childrens' Hospital of the King's Daughters.
One other person in the house, Ronald Fleming, 28, escaped without injury, said fire department spokesman Mike Gabany.
At the two schools, the news of the deaths moved some teachers and classmates to tears and prompted questions from students no one could answer. Felicia's teacher, Carolyn Graham, placed her former pupil's perfect paper on the desk and left it there. She told Felicia's classmates it was all right to cry and express their feelings.
At Jane Bryan Elementary School, the words, "Remembering" appeared at the top of a poster on the hallway wall. Photographs of Cassandra, a second-grader, and Corina, a kindergartner, were atop two brief letters principal Eunice Frazier wrote to students and teachers.
"We will remember Cassandra as a person who always shared. She was nice and kind to others. She was friendly and helpful. She was good," one of the letters stated.
When Marievelyn Hughey, Corina's kindergarten teacher, told the children that Corina had died in a house fire, she said, one child asked: "Does that mean we won't ever see her again?"
When another pupil asked if Corina's clothes were burned, Hughey said another child answered, "That won't matter. She'll get angel clothes."
(Source: Daily Press newspaper, January 04, 1989 by David Chernicky, Staff Writer)
-----------
She is buried beside her two sisters.
HAMPTON — One of Felicia Smith's last assignments before Christmas vacation lay on her empty desk in a third-grade classroom at Moton Elementary School Tuesday afternoon.
Across the top of the page, in pencil, her teacher had indicated a perfect score on the assignment to match words with their opposites.
Three of the 11 matches - happy with sad, high with low and laughed with cried - could be used to describe the mood in the halls, classrooms and hearts of students and teachers at Moton and nearby Jane Bryan Elementary Tuesday. Felicia, 9, attended Jane Bryan last year. Her two sisters, Cassandra Walters, 8, and Corina Combs, 6, were enrolled there this school year. Tuesday morning, all three perished in a blaze at their Phoebus home; firefighters said it appeared they died of smoke inhalation while dressing for school in their second-floor bedroom.
City Fire Marshal Carl Wallace said the girls probably would have escaped had there been a smoke detector in the frame house at 14 Tennis Lane. He criticized the federal program that subsidized their mother's rent payments but does not require smoke detectors.
He said the fire appeared to have started in a couch in the living room just below the girls' bedroom. It appeared accidental, he said this morning, but the cause had not been determined.
The girls' mother, Barbara Combs, and her 5-month-old son, Emmanuel, were listed in serious but stable condition late Tuesday in Sentara Norfolk General Hospital's burn trauma unit. A hospital official said the mother received first- and second-degree burns over 25 percent of her body, including face, arms, back, left shoulder and a hand. The infant received less serious burns over 8 percent of his body. He was to be transferred today to Childrens' Hospital of the King's Daughters.
One other person in the house, Ronald Fleming, 28, escaped without injury, said fire department spokesman Mike Gabany.
At the two schools, the news of the deaths moved some teachers and classmates to tears and prompted questions from students no one could answer. Felicia's teacher, Carolyn Graham, placed her former pupil's perfect paper on the desk and left it there. She told Felicia's classmates it was all right to cry and express their feelings.
At Jane Bryan Elementary School, the words, "Remembering" appeared at the top of a poster on the hallway wall. Photographs of Cassandra, a second-grader, and Corina, a kindergartner, were atop two brief letters principal Eunice Frazier wrote to students and teachers.
"We will remember Cassandra as a person who always shared. She was nice and kind to others. She was friendly and helpful. She was good," one of the letters stated.
When Marievelyn Hughey, Corina's kindergarten teacher, told the children that Corina had died in a house fire, she said, one child asked: "Does that mean we won't ever see her again?"
When another pupil asked if Corina's clothes were burned, Hughey said another child answered, "That won't matter. She'll get angel clothes."
(Source: Daily Press newspaper, January 04, 1989 by David Chernicky, Staff Writer)
-----------
She is buried beside her two sisters.
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
