Mom, girl lost in fire remembered
Another daughter escaped Falls blaze
NIAGARA FALLS—A makeshift memorial of balloons and stuffed animals festooned a tree in front of 716 Monteagle St. as a demolition crew prepared Saturday to raze the gutted frame house where a 34- year-old woman and her 10-year-old daughter died in an early-morning flash fire.
A 13-year-old daughter was able to escape, Niagara Falls officials said. Neighbors identified the dead as Tay-Juana Smith and her daughter, Kheyaria Williams. The girl who survived, apparently unharmed, was Smith’s older daughter, Khasmir Williams, the neighbors said. Relatives reportedly were caring for the child.
Residents of Monteagle, a one-block street off Main Street north of downtown, said they were awakened by a piercing scream just after 1 a. m. and looked out to see an orange glow inside a first-floor window in the brown, 2z-story house at 716 Monteagle.
Police said Kheyaria discovered the blaze and alerted her older sister, then ran upstairs to rouse their mother.
“I’ve got to get mommy,” the child reportedly said.
Johnny Newton, who lives nearby, tried to enter the burning house but it was already engulfed in flames, said Johnny Parks, another neighbor.
“I told him, ‘You’ve got to get out,’ ” Parks said.
Firefighters responding to a call at 1:16 a. m. learned occupants were still in the burning house. They stretched a hand line into the front door and attempted to extinguish the fire while searching the first floor. A second fire crew arrived five minutes after the call and attempted to search the second floor, but a minute later, as the second floor became fully involved in fire, all personnel were ordered out.
After the second-floor flames were knocked down, firefighters re-entered and found the bodies of the mother and daughter, together, two feet from a second-story window.
Neighbors described Smith as a single mother who worked at a collection agency to support her children. The family had lived on the street for two years, they said.
Kheyaria was a fifth-grader at Niagara Charter School and Khasmir is in seventh grade at Gaskill Prep School.
The cause of the fire is being investigated by the Fire Prevention Bureau and Police Department.
The house was considered a total loss, with damage of $40,000 to the structure and $20,000 to the contents.
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