6 Children in Family Die in Detroit Fire

DETROIT —  Six children died in a fire at their grandmother’s home Sunday while their mother was at a hospital after giving birth to a boy on Christmas Day.

The fire rushed up a stairway and trapped the children in two upstairs bedrooms. Their grandmother and three others escaped.

The fire started in a living room closet and appeared accidental, but its cause was not yet known, Fire Department Lt. Katrina Butler said.

“Oh God, no! No! No!” neighbor Carolyn King screamed, falling to her knees as coroner’s workers carried the first of six body bags from the home.

Detroit has had several other deadly fires this month.

“This is probably the worst December that I can remember,” Arson Chief Jon Bozich told WDIV-TV. “We’ve actually lost 13 children so far this month in fires, so it’s been a very bad month.”

Killed in Sunday’s blaze were five daughters and a son of Feameeka O’Steen, who was in the maternity ward at Henry Ford Hospital on Sunday, nursing supervisor Meredith Meyer said.

The daughters were ages 2, 5, 6, 8 and 11; the son was 7.

The hospital wouldn’t give information on O’Steen’s condition or when she gave birth, but Butler said the woman learned of her children’s deaths while at the hospital.

“The mother is very shook up right now,” Butler said.

Maternal grandmother Hanna O’Steen, 47, and her daughters Makeba, 20, and Latoya, 15, were injured in the fire, Fire Chief Lee Moore said. The victims’ 10-year-old sister Shacoya was uninjured.

Latoya was in serious condition at the hospital, Meyer said. A Detroit Receiving Hospital spokeswoman said Hanna O’Steen had been treated and released and that Makeba O’Steen was in serious condition after surgery.

Neighbors tried to rescue the children before firefighters arrived.

“The fire was just too bad--they couldn’t get in there,” King said.