A Saginaw woman is in the hospital tonight, but her emotional wounds may be worse. She suffered one of the worst losses any parent could face. All of her children and her husband died in an early morning fire. Dave Leval tells us what went wrong.
"Everyone is just confused right now, you know?" Art Payton of Saginaw and others in his family are still in shock. Six of his relatives, including 5 grand nieces and nephews are dead. They died in an early morning fire at the corner of South Michigan Avenue and Waller Street. "Is this really happening, or is it a dream? Everyone is really upset."
We're told 33-year-old Tanesha Watkins was pulled out of the burning house through the basement window by two Saginaw County deputies. Her five children and husband did not survive. They are 33 year old Samuel Watkins and his step-children, 13 year old Adam Dupuis, 8 year old Majesty Price, 5 year old Destiny Price, 3 year old Essence Price and Chad Skinner who had his first birthday on Wednesday.
Tanisha went to the basement because that is where she thought the fire was. Investigators believe her husband accidentally started it while he was cooking in the kitchen.
Neighbors tell us the family owned the house since December 2005, and there were no problems. But, as fire investigators go through the debris, they found one glaring problem with the house, there were no smoke detectors. "If we had smoke detectors in this house, the outcome could have been different."
