Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1876 — Distressing Casualty—Five Children Burned to Death. [ARTICLE]

Distressing Casualty—Five Children Burned to Death.

About one mile back from Lake St. Clair, at Stony Point, some fifteen miles above Windsor, stood a rather large farmhouse which was the residence of Francis Mailloox, his wife and seven children, the oldest seventeen years pf age and the youngest eignt months old. The house was built of hewed logs with clapboards on the outside, and consisted of a main part with two stories and a kitchen addition at the rear end. In the front part of the lower story was a bedroom, in which Mr. Mailloux, his wife, the baby and the oldest child were sleeping. The upper story contained two large rooms, which were separated by a small hall and stairway. In the front rooih, up-stairs, the remaining five children were sleeping. Between the stairway and the bedroom occupied by the parents was the diningroom, and the lower landing of the stairway was between the dining-room and the kitchen. About nine o’clock Wednesday night Mr. Mailloux and his wife were awakened by the struggles of the baby, which was in the bed with them, and immediately they discovered that their room was filled with smoke. To spring from the bed with the baby in their arms and to awaken the oldest child was but the work of an Instant. Then they opened the door into the dining-room, with the intention of going out at the side-door and also to awaken the children up-stairs. There, they were met by a wall of fire extending across the opposite side of the diningroom and driving them back with its awful-heat. Closing the door, Mr. Mailloux passed through the bedroom and parlor and out at the front door, followed by his wife with the baby and eldest child. Taking them to a safe distance from the house, Mr. Mailloux turned to give the alarm to the remainder of his family, and saw a small, quivering flame struggling through the roof, which was completely overshadowed with thick and dense volumes of.,.smoke. Then it was that he saw a sight calculated to shake the stoutest heart. The chamber became suddenly lighted, and he could see that it was filled with smoke. Still none of the children appeared. He went to the side door and found the stairway a mass of fire. He returned to the front door and dashed into the room wild with fear and for a minute was lost to sight. When he returned his hands were badly burned and his hair, whiskers and eyebrows were singed. He was met by his wife and together they looked at the chamber window. There they saw indistinctly through the smoke the forms of their children fiantically waving their hands and feebly struggling to reach the sash. One by one they disappeared until only two remained in sight, and just then a pane of glass was shattered, the fragments as they flew being followed by a cloud of smoke, which hid the window for several minutes, during which time Mr. and Mrs. Mailloux could only watch, hoping that from the dark canopy above their children would drop into their outstretched arms. The minutes seemed hours; the suspense was awful and only the rush and roar of the flames was heard. Huddenly, with a sharp and short crash of glass, the window above their heads, where but a short time before they had seen their children, sent forth a huge, hot bar of flame, driving the now thoroughly distracted parents away flrorn beneath it and telling with terrible brevity the sad fate of their little ones. All that conld be had been done by the parents, and returaing to the two surviving children they gave themselves over completely to their grief, where they were found shortly after by their neighbors. The nearest neighbor lived half a mile away and it is probable that no assistance would have arrived had it not been for Hector •Predhomme, of Windsor, who, while rid-

ing about a mile away, saw tho-Aunes and gave tbe alarm. Boon there were fifteen or twenty persons at the scene, and while some of them attended to the griefstricken parents the others turned their attention to extinguishing the flames. After an hour’s hard work tlie Are was out. Then began the sad search for jhe bodies. Last seen near the front window, the search for the clilldren.began atthat point, but they were not there. At latt, Mu a corner of the room, about fifteen leet away from the window* wsfc found clus- _ tered together in a sickening, hoirible heap, the remains of the five unforttinate ones. They were not distinguishable, there being no clothing, nothing J>ut bones and portions of limbs. The details arc too horrible to relate, but may be realized when it is stated that when collected they were placed in an ordinary flour barrel and occupied about half the space therein. It is not known how or where the fire originated, but it is supposed that it began in tbe kitchen. Mr. Mailloux and his wifeare both badly burned about the face and arms, and as yet have not been in condition to relate their frantic efforts to save the lives of their children; but that they did struggle hard is plainly shown by the severe nature of their wounds.— Detroit Free Press. ~_—=*=s = i