10 People Perish in Bardstown Blaze: Six of the Victims Were Children

Feb 07, 03:33 AM

Current Headlines: By Greg Kocher and Steve Lannen, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Feb. 7--BARDSTOWN -- Dwight Mason remembered the screams.

Hours after waking yesterday in the frigid early morning to try and save a family, Mason sat at his Guthrie Drive home down the street from the charred brick ranch house with a large hole in its middle.

An eyewitness to what officials yesterday called the deadliest Kentucky fire in 30 years, Mason recalled the frantic minutes when he and others tried to rescue the three generations of a family inside. He would later learn that 10 perished, six of them children. Only one adult made it out by jumping out a window. Another had left the house and returned to find it engulfed in flames.

Before 4 a.m. on the lawn of the two-bedroom house at 235 Guthrie Drive, Mason saw the man who jumped, Darrell Maddox, screaming for someone to call 911. Flames from the fire danced in the living room picture window. Mason and Maddox ran around to the back of the house.

There, Lizzie Maddox, whose toddler daughter Anasia was still inside, tried desperately to get in the house.

Mason pulled her back from the fire and heard the screams of children and the cry of help from his neighbor Johnny Litsey. He ran to the man's bedroom window, grabbed a tree limb and smashed the window. He cut his leg trying to climb inside.

"We could hear them, but we couldn't see them or nothing. We couldn't get in there," he said. "There was just too much smoke."

Authorities said yesterday some of the victims were found on beds, others near doorways. Another was pronounced dead at Flaget Hospital in Bardstown.

Autopsies will be performed at the state medical examiner's office in Louisville.

Some of the children who died were only visiting. Twins up from Tennessee, Heaven and Earth Maddox, with their mother, Demita "Ann" Maddox, were supposed to return home on Saturday, but stayed. All three died in the blaze.

Janet Tonge said her sister, Sherry Maddox, and longtime boyfriend Litsey, lived in the house. She said children ranging in age from a year old to 10 years, died in the fire. They include: Deashia McKinney, Nekia McKinney and Dariyel Maddox, the daughter of Darrell Maddox. Dariyel would have turned 4 today. Crystal Denise Maddox, the mother of Deashia and Nekia, also perished.

"We're not capable of thinking at the moment," Tonge said. "We're just like that house -- burned out."

Because some of the dead children may have attended Bardstown Independent schools, a team of counselors was deployed, said Superintendent Brent Holsclaw.

Fire officials called the blaze the deadliest structure fire in the state since the 1977 Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Northern Kentucky that killed 165. Anthony Mattingly, Bardstown's fire chief and 28-year veteran, said the fire was the worst he could remember in the history of the city or surrounding counties.

Officials from the state fire marshal's office, Bardstown police and representatives from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the fire which began shortly before 4 a.m. Tuesday. The blaze was reported at 3:51 a.m. and fire trucks arrived at 3:57 a.m.

For much of the day, fire trucks, TV news vans and cars with grieving relatives jammed the street, in a neighborhood not far from My Old Kentucky Home.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, authorities said they had not determined a cause and had eliminated only the garage as a possible room where the blaze started.

"We are going through one room at a time trying to eliminate all sources of ignition. It's much like doing an archaeological dig. We have to dig through the debris that's fallen and actually get to what was originally there," said Rob Goodwin, senior deputy state fire marshal.

Darrell Maddox, who escaped from the house, was listed in serious condition yesterday at University Hospital in Louisville. Mason said he suffered burns to his face and a deep bruise. Lizzie Maddox was discharged earlier in the day from Flaget Hospital in Bardstown.

Several people said they heard or were told an explosion occurred.

"I did hear a pop or something, a boom," Mason said. Johnny Litsey and Sherry Maddox "were telling their landlord something was wrong with the furnace. That was two weeks ago. That could have been a possibility. I don't know."

The landlord was not aware of any mechanical problems with the furnace or water heater, Goodwin said at the press conference.

Neighbors were reeling from the tragedy.

LeAnn Baber, who lives across the street, said, "It's awful. I can't put it into words. I'm so sorry for that family. I can't imagine what that family is going through right now."

Six houses away, Greg Nalley said, "It was grandkids, cousins, all family. ... It's a tremendous loss of life."

Mason said his wife was a second cousin to some of the Maddoxes. "Good people" he called them.

"I was trying to get to them but there was just no way. Only thing you can do now is pray and turn it over to God," Mason said.

News researchers Linda Niemi and Linda Minch contributed to this article. Reach Greg Kocher in the Nicholasville bureau at (859) 885-5775 or gkocher1@herald-leader.com [mailto:gkocher1@herald-leader.com]. Reach Steve Lannen (859) 231-1328 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 1328, or slannen@herald-leader.com [mailto:slannen@herald-leader.com].

-----

Copyright (c) 2007, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.