USA TODAY International Edition
Day care blaze killed firefighter’s children
The father of three of four siblings killed in a fire at a Pennsylvania day care is a volunteer firefighter who was responding to another call at the time of the blaze.
At least five children were killed and two people injured in the blaze that ripped through the center in Erie early Sunday.
Chief Joe Crotty of the Lawrence Park Township Volunteer Fire Department told USA TODAY that Luther Jones was out on a call that turned out to be a false alarm. His department helped handle other calls while Erie firefighters responded to the day care.
The tragedy is “beyond comprehension,” Crotty said.
Four of the five children killed were siblings, family members said.
“I’m just so hurt my babies are gone,” the children’s mother, Shevona Overton, told Erie News Now. “I love them dearly. I just hurt inside knowing that my kids were fighting and hurting in that fire. Every minute, I feel the same pain.”
Overton identified the children, two boys and two girls, as La’Myhia Jones, 8; Luther Jones Jr., 6; Ava Jones, 4; and Jaydan Augustyniak, 9 months.
Fire officials did not release the names of the dead but said the fifth child was a 2-year-old boy, the Erie Times-News reported.
“I’m never going to be the same,” Overton told Erie News Now. “I lost a piece of me that can never be replaced. It’s just something I have to live with, and it’s going to be hard to do.”
Crotty said the Lawrence Park Township Volunteer Fire Department set up a fund with Northwest Bank for the family to cover medical and funeral costs.