Fire Kills Five Girls In Bentonville
Tue. Mar 25th 2008
By Richard Dean Prudenti
The Morning News
BENTONVILLE - Five sisters who slept together on the second floor of their Bentonville home died together in a fire early Tuesday morning.
The girls parents' Jamie Dale Frazier, 33, and Karry A. Mahmens Frazier, 27, were downstairs and escaped without injury after a smoke detector alerted them to fire and smoke at 402 S.W. "B" St. about 1:22 a.m.
By the time Bentonville firefighters reached the house at 1:24 a.m., the couple's five children were dead. Police identified them as Kristan Frazier, 13; Kimberly Frazier, 11; Katelyn Mahmens, 9; Kaila Frazier, 8; and Kiya Frazier, 5.
"This is the nightmare firefighters dread," said Bentonville Fire Chief Dan White, noting 44 Bentonville personnel along with some Rogers firefighters responded to the scene.
Firefighters arrived and found the fire making its way from the second floor down a narrow stairwell, which was the only access to the second floor except for a small window that would have been difficult for person to get through, White said.
All of the children were in "sleeping positions" in a room where two of them were lying on twin beds side by side and three of them were on the floor, White said.
"They were exposed to the smoke for too long," he said.
Investigators sent a portable electric heater to the state Crime Laboratory, said Bentonville Police Chief James Allen.
"It looks like this is accidental based on the space heater," which was between the beds and the wall on the south side of the house, Allen said. He said autopsies at the medical examiner's office in Little Rock will help determine causes of death.
The parents were distraught when firefighters arrived, Allen said. "Apparently the dad tried to go back upstairs even after the fire department got there," he said.
Police also are investigating the presence of drug paraphernalia and small amounts of what they believe to be methamphetamine and marijuana in the house. There were no signs that methamphetamine was being manufactured in the house, and neither parent was tested for drug use, Allen said.
The Fraziers had lived in Bentonville for several years and the children had been in the public schools for some time, said Superintendent Gary Compton.
Compton said teachers and principals were reeling Tuesday from the loss of five students.
"It's always a really sad day when somebody young loses their lives. The schools are struggling," Compton said.
He and school administrators met with principals at Lincoln Junior High School, Ruth Hale Barker Middle School and Sugar Creek Elementary School on Tuesday morning to help those schools' staffs handle their emotions and determine what to tell students.
An Arvest Bank account has been set up for the Frazier family to help pay for the children's burials, said Carol Martin, a friend of the children's grandmother, Kathy Mahmens. For more information, call Arvest at 271-1253.
The Morning News' Lana Flowers contributed to this report.
