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Photo by Kirby Haskins
FATAL FIRE—Firefighters were called to a duplex fire on Foxway Drive at 11:20 a.m. Dec. 24. Three brothers and a teenage girl who were in the residence at the time of the fire died of smoke inhalation. The fire remains under investigation.
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| Cause of fatal fire remains unknown |
By Kirby Haskins
Advocate staff writer
The deaths of a teenage girl and three local children on Christmas Eve continue to stun the community.
Authorities say Shirley Dawn Rothwell, 17, and her cousins Brandon, 3, Wayne, 5, and Timmy Elam, 7, died Dec. 24 following an apartment fire at 1823 Foxway Drive earlier that morning.
The Montgomery County Fire-EMS Department was called to the Foxway Drive duplex at approximately 11:20 a.m., Fire Chief Larry Potter said. Ray Botts, an off-duty firefighter, was nearby and was the first to arrive on scene, he added.
Upon arrival, Botts reportedly found that neighbors had removed the four occupants from the residence, Potter said. Botts then began administering CPR until additional emergency crews arrived. Firefighters made it to the scene shortly afterward and found the apartment engulfed in flames. The children were later pronounced dead by emergency room staff at St. Joseph Mt. Sterling.
“(The fire) was through the roof by the time we got there,” Potter said.
The apartment was reportedly rented by Rothwell’s mother, Linda Yarber. The boys’ mother, Sandra Elam, lives across the street. Shirley Rothwell was babysitting the Elam children at the time of the fire.
Firefighters extinguished the blaze and stayed on scene until 1:27 p.m. The neighboring apartment of the duplex sustained smoke and some fire damage in the attic area, Potter said.
An autopsy was performed on Dec. 25 at the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Frankfort. The autopsy results confirmed what was initially suspected; that all four children died of smoke inhalation, Montgomery County Coroner Wally Johnson told the Advocate this week.
It has been speculated that the children may have been asleep at the time of the fire, though that theory hasn’t been confirmed at this time, Potter said.
“It appeared that (they were asleep)” Potter said. “But we can’t be 100 percent sure,” noting there didn’t appear to be any smoke detectors in the home.
The fire is still under investigation by the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Kentucky State Police.
KSP Arson Investigator Shane Barnes has been investigating the scene in recent days, he said.
“The area of origin of the fire is the front living room,” Barnes said. “We don’t have a cause of the fire yet.”
There is no indication that the fire was intentionally set, Barnes added.
The Elam boys were reportedly going to celebrate Christmas with their father, Shawn Elam, and their paternal grandparents that evening. Shawn said they had planned to pick the boys up later that afternoon.
“They were really good kids,” Shawn Elam said. “They were lovable and they would always put a smile on your face. There was never a dull moment around them.”
The boys’ paternal grandmother, Karla Cartmill, says the family is struggling with the deaths of the three young children, especially their father.
“Those babies were his life,” Cartmill said. “He lived for those babies. Those children were his priorities; they came first. Even if he didn’t have a decent pair of clothes to put on himself, he made sure those babies had clothes.”
The family lost an infant son, Sean, to SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) about nine years ago, Cartmill said. The boys talked about their late brother often, she added.
“They always talked about seeing their brother in heaven,” see said. “Now they can.”
Sandra Elam said her sons were very personable children. Brandon and Wayne were in preschool and Timmy was a second-grader at Mt. Sterling Elementary School.
“They always had a smile on their face and didn’t know a stranger,” Sandra said. “Everybody loved them.”
The Elam boys were playful children who loved to go to Easy Walker Park to explore and feed the ducks, their grandmother said. Timmy—the oldest—loved to draw and enjoyed making books, she said. Wayne enjoyed helping his grandmother in the kitchen.
“(Wayne) liked to help me cook. He liked to help me mash potatoes,” Cartmill said. “And he was a ham. He would do anything to make you laugh.”
The youngest of the boys, Brandon, was a typical 3-year-old, she said.
“He was so easy going,” Cartmill explained. “He just went with the flow. And of course he always looked up to his bigger brothers.”
Sandra Elam said her niece, Shirley Dawn Rothwell, was a girl with a lot of interests, including the online Web site MySpace.
“She was into music, computers, phones,” she said, “but she was mostly into her MySpace. She was constantly on there.”
Losing four family members on the same day has taken a toll on the family, Sandra said.
“We are trying to get through it,” she explained. “It’s like it’s a dream. I wish it was. I wish I could wake up and it all be just a dream.”
Donations to help pay for the funeral expenses are being accepted by Herald and Stewart Funeral Home. Anyone interested in donating can contact them at 498-1421. Checks can be made payable to Herald and Stewart.
A fund has also been set up in memory of the children and donations can be made at People’s Exchange Bank locations in Mt. Sterling. A friend of the family, according to Lexington media, donated plots for the children’s burial. Mt. Sterling Elementary also had been accepting donations. The families reportedly had no insurance.
Services for the Elam children and Rothwell were held Tuesday at First Baptist Church. A vigil in memory of the four was held Dec. 25. For complete obituary information, see page A3.
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