FLINT -- It was an outpouring of tears and prayers as family and friends remembered the four children who lost their lives in an apartment fire Saturday night.
Community leaders and even strangers shared in the raw pain of the innocent lives lost.
"This shows how a community can come together, you know were coming together at a very traumatic time, but it just shows what we can do as a community once we come together," said 3rd Ward Councilman Bryant W. Nolden.
The deadly fire took the lives of 1-year-old Dekari Wiley; 2-year-old Karrie Delanly; 3-year-old Izzabell Taylor; and 4-year-old Nakyrah Wiley. It started as a kitchen fire at the River Park Apartments in Flint; the 9-1-1 calls came in.
“There are reports of a 27-year-old man and there are kids up stairs in a bedroom window trying to get out," said a 9-11 operator, courtesy of Fred Moses of www.moses.bz.
While controversy swirls around one of the children’s father, the baby sitter, who was the only one to make it out alive, the community and investigators are left wondering what could have been differently to avoid this tragedy.
"We attempted to kick in on the door but the door wouldn't, we couldn't get in, it just grew bigger and bigger and bigger, like we couldn't do anything but just watch," said neighbor Shawndreka Howell.
Now, the community is raising money, reaching out to the family who lost so much in the blaze.
"It was just a community effort and we’re trying to make sure the families are taken care of, and they don't have to worry about anything," said Nolden.
A home that once overflowed with the sounds of children’s laugher, now mourns the loss of heaven's four little angels.
"They were some good kids, that’s’ all I can say, all of them four of them," Howell said.
The funeral services for the children have not yet been set.
Donations can be sent to:
River Park Apartments Fire Victims Memorial Fund
Foss Avenue Baptist Church
Federal Credit Union
1159 East Foss Avenue Flint, Michigan 48505 or you can reach them by phone 810-787-9019
