Nine killed in Kentucky house fire, authorities say

Nine people were killed early Thursday, Jan. 30, when fire tore through a house in Kentucky, authorities said.

By Elisha Fieldstadt, Staff Writer, NBC News

A mother and eight children were killed when a fire ignited by an electric heater tore through a Kentucky home on Thursday morning, authorities said.

Nine of an 11-member family were found dead in the house fire that erupted in a Muhlenberg County home in the middle of the night, said Trooper Stuart Recke, Kentucky State Police public affairs officer.

Two parents and their nine children lived in the single-story home, Recke said.

On Thursday afternoon, Kentucky State Police identified the mother as Larae Watson, 35, and the eight children killed: Madison, 15; Kaitlyn, 14; Morgan, 13; Emily, 9; Samuel, 8; Raegan, 6; Mark, 4 and Nathaniel, 4.

The father and another child escaped the fire and were flown to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville about 120 miles away for treatment, Recke said.

Leslie Hill, a Vanderbilt Medical Center spokeswoman, said Chad Watson, 36, and Kylie Watson, 11, were both in critical but stable condition.

More than 12 hours after the fire, investigators determined that an electric baseboard heater ignited a combustible material accidentally left too close to the heat source, Recke said.

The temperature in Muhlenberg County dropped to 1 degree overnight, while the region is accustomed to 35 degree temperatures in January, according to Weatherbase.com.

“We normally don’t have weather like that,” said Laura Bennett, who lives two doors down from the devastated house. “They said when they was trying to put the fire out, the water was turning to ice,” she added.

Bennett said the house had no more than three bedrooms and that the eleven family members were “piled up” in the limited space.

Harold McElvain, a former Muhlenberg County Sheriff who lives across the street, said the family was “a nice young family.”

“Everybody loved the kids,” McElvain said.

Timothy D. Easley / AP

Members of the Kentucky State Fire Marshall's office look over the remains of a house fire in Muhlenberg County, Ky., Thursday Jan. 30, 2014.

Bennett said that Samuel was playing at her house on Wednesday night with her 8-year-old daughter.

“He went home, and then 10 hours later he’s gone.”

A neighbor called the fire department around 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, Recke said, adding that firefighters have reported the house was “fully engulfed” when they arrive minutes later.

Crews put the fire out within an hour, Recke said. Still, “as I’m facing the house, the right side of the house is basically gone,” he added.

Recke said no other property was damaged in the neighborhood, which is about 150 miles southwest of Louisville.

Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed his sympathies to the family and community from the senate floor on Thursday afternoon. “The entire Commonwealth stands beside Muhlenberg County right now, and we’ll do whatever we can to help you recover from this horrific loss.”

Nine people, including eight children, are feared dead after a fire ripped through a home in Greenville, Kentucky. NBC News' Frances Kuo reports.

This story was originally published on Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:24 PM EST

Nine fear dead, inluding 8 children, in Kentucky house fire

Nine people were killed early Thursday, Jan. 30, when fire tore through a house in Kentucky, authorities said.

By Elisha Fieldstadt, Staff Writer, NBC News

A mother and eight children were killed when a fire ignited by an electric heater tore through a Kentucky home on Thursday morning, authorities said.

Nine of an 11-member family were found dead in the house fire that erupted in a Muhlenberg County home in the middle of the night, said Trooper Stuart Recke, Kentucky State Police public affairs officer.

Two parents and their nine children lived in the single-story home, Recke said.

On Thursday afternoon, Kentucky State Police identified the mother as Larae Watson, 35, and the eight children killed: Madison, 15; Kaitlyn, 14; Morgan, 13; Emily, 9; Samuel, 8; Raegan, 6; Mark, 4 and Nathaniel, 4.

The father and another child escaped the fire and were flown to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville about 120 miles away for treatment, Recke said.

Leslie Hill, a Vanderbilt Medical Center spokeswoman, said Chad Watson, 36, and Kylie Watson, 11, were both in critical but stable condition.

More than 12 hours after the fire, investigators determined that an electric baseboard heater ignited a combustible material accidentally left too close to the heat source, Recke said.

The temperature in Muhlenberg County dropped to 1 degree overnight, while the region is accustomed to 35 degree temperatures in January, according to Weatherbase.com.

“We normally don’t have weather like that,” said Laura Bennett, who lives two doors down from the devastated house. “They said when they was trying to put the fire out, the water was turning to ice,” she added.

Bennett said the house had no more than three bedrooms and that the eleven family members were “piled up” in the limited space.

Harold McElvain, a former Muhlenberg County Sheriff who lives across the street, said the family was “a nice young family.”

“Everybody loved the kids,” McElvain said.

Timothy D. Easley / AP

Members of the Kentucky State Fire Marshall's office look over the remains of a house fire in Muhlenberg County, Ky., Thursday Jan. 30, 2014.

Bennett said that Samuel was playing at her house on Wednesday night with her 8-year-old daughter.

“He went home, and then 10 hours later he’s gone.”

A neighbor called the fire department around 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, Recke said, adding that firefighters have reported the house was “fully engulfed” when they arrive minutes later.

Crews put the fire out within an hour, Recke said. Still, “as I’m facing the house, the right side of the house is basically gone,” he added.

Recke said no other property was damaged in the neighborhood, which is about 150 miles southwest of Louisville.

Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed his sympathies to the family and community from the senate floor on Thursday afternoon. “The entire Commonwealth stands beside Muhlenberg County right now, and we’ll do whatever we can to help you recover from this horrific loss.”

Nine people, including eight children, are feared dead after a fire ripped through a home in Greenville, Kentucky. NBC News' Frances Kuo reports.

This story was originally published on Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:24 PM EST

Nine feared dead, inluding 8 children, in Kentucky house fire

WFIE

Nine people were killed early Thursday, Jan. 30, when fire tore through a house in Kentucky, authorities said.

By Elisha Fieldstadt, Staff Writer, NBC News

A mother and eight children were killed when a fire ignited by an electric heater tore through a Kentucky home on Thursday morning, authorities said.

Nine of an 11-member family were found dead in the house fire that erupted in a Muhlenberg County home in the middle of the night, said Trooper Stuart Recke, Kentucky State Police public affairs officer.

Two parents and their nine children lived in the single-story home, Recke said.

On Thursday afternoon, Kentucky State Police identified the mother as Larae Watson, 35, and the eight children killed: Madison, 15; Kaitlyn, 14; Morgan, 13; Emily, 9; Samuel, 8; Raegan, 6; Mark, 4 and Nathaniel, 4.

The father and another child escaped the fire and were flown to a Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville about 120 miles away for treatment, Recke said.

Leslie Hill, a Vanderbilt Medical Center spokeswoman, said Chad Watson, 36, and Kylie Watson, 11, were both in critical but stable condition.

More than 12 hours after the fire, investigators determined that an electric baseboard heater ignited a combustible material accidentally left too close to the heat source, Recke said.

The temperature in Muhlenberg County dropped to 1 degree overnight, while the region is accustomed to 35 degree temperatures in January, according to Weatherbase.com.

“We normally don’t have weather like that,” said Laura Bennett, who lives two doors down from the devastated house. “They said when they was trying to put the fire out, the water was turning to ice,” she added.

Bennett said the house had no more than three bedrooms and that the eleven family members were “piled up” in the limited space.

Harold McElvain, a former Muhlenberg County Sheriff who lives across the street, said the family was “a nice young family.”

“Everybody loved the kids,” McElvain said.

Timothy D. Easley / AP

Members of the Kentucky State Fire Marshall's office look over the remains of a house fire in Muhlenberg County, Ky., Thursday Jan. 30, 2014.

Bennett said that Samuel was playing at her house on Wednesday night with her 8-year-old daughter.

“He went home, and then 10 hours later he’s gone.”

A neighbor called the fire department around 2 a.m. on Thursday morning, Recke said, adding that firefighters have reported the house was “fully engulfed” when they arrive minutes later.

Crews put the fire out within an hour, Recke said. Still, “as I’m facing the house, the right side of the house is basically gone,” he added.

Recke said no other property was damaged in the neighborhood, which is about 150 miles southwest of Louisville.

Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., expressed his sympathies to the family and community from the senate floor on Thursday afternoon. “The entire Commonwealth stands beside Muhlenberg County right now, and we’ll do whatever we can to help you recover from this horrific loss.”

Nine people, including eight children, are feared dead after a fire ripped through a home in Greenville, Kentucky. NBC News' Frances Kuo reports.

This story was originally published on Thu Jan 30, 2014 4:24 PM EST

House (and hunger) for the holidays: families struggle to feed children during the school holidays

Erreur lors de deserialisation du corps du message de réponse pour l' opération «Translate». Greatness du maximum quota pour longueur du contenu de Chaîne (8192) lors de données XML lecture. EC quota peut être augmenté in amending the MaxStringContentLength Propriété sur l'objet XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas utilise pendant la création du lecteur XML. Ligne 1, position 8833. Jonathan Adams / for NBC NewsMichael Taylor, Jr., 12, of Abingdon, VA., gives thanks with his brothers and grandmother, Elizabeth Salyers, for the meal they received at a local food pantry.By Nona Willis Aronowitz, NBC News contributorThe snow was blowing sideways in New York City last Saturday, but parents still streamed in to New York Common Pantry, some leading as many as four or five children by the hand while they sat with volunteers and chose their food on an iPad."I'm here to stock up," said pantry client Theresa Garcia. In one week, Garcia's three children, who attend public school, would be home for an eight-day holiday break, a long stretch of going without the two free meals they eat in school every day.The East Harlem pantry was Garcia's second stop for supplies that day; She already visited a food bank near the shelter where her family is staying in East New York, more than an hour away on the subway. "I also had to give my church when heads up that these next weeks I'll need extra help," she said. "You hit it from all angles."Garcia's kids are among 24 million American children who qualify for free or reduced lunch and breakfast at school-48 percent of all public school students. For many kids, those meals are the only ones they will eat all day. That all changes during school holidays, when the burden falls on low - income parents to provide three meals a day. The United States Department of Agriculture provides food assistance to many families during summer break, but there's no similar infrastructure in place for the end-of-year holidays, when kids are home for up to two weeks.And they have healthy appetites."Especially with boys, they're never, ever full," says Elizabeth Salyers, who's raising her three young grandsons in Abingdon, Va. Salyers had been getting by on social security and the spousal benefits from her late husband, a disabled veteran, when the kids came to live with her in 2009. But four years later, she says her "funds are slowly dissolving." She has had to rely on the Abingdon Soup Kitchen and other programs around town in order to feed the kids. It'll be doubly difficult to keep the boys' bellies full until January 8th, when they go back to school.Jonathan Adams / for NBC NewsElizabeth Salyers, 71, looks through a box of vegetables at the Harvest Home Kitchen in Abingdon, VA., with grandchildren Dashaun and Ector Taylor."You just take what's available, and you can stretch it 50 different ways if you have to," Salyers said. She prepares hearty dishes that "expand when you cook ' em," like oatmeal and spaghetti. On days the boys sleep late, she breathes a sigh of relief; She can get away with serving them breakfast, snack, and supper.Kathy Underhill, the executive director of Hunger Free Colorado, is well aware of this annual problem facing low - income families of school-aged children. "What the holidays mean is that families already on a razor-thin margin have to struggle even further," she said. In her state, 10 percent of households-about 511,000 families - are currently on SNAP benefits, and another 390,000 more are eligible.Mildred Floyd of Golden, Colo., is the head of one of those families. Even with just one teenage are at home during break, "the impact on my budget is astronomical," she said. "[My son] is in his comfort zone, sitting in front of the TV, so sometimes he eats even a little more than usual."For Floyd, who is unemployed, it's not just the money that poses a problem but the logistics."During the holidays, you have to be able to get to whatever site that's giving food," she said. "You have to get creative." "You have to drive all over town." During school breaks, filling the gap of school meals becomes an elaborate dance of research, transportation, and sign-up sheets."Families start mixing and matching with other community resources when they don't have school lunch, but with overworked parents and bus routes being cut, this isn't always possible," said Peggy Halderman, founder of the Golden Backpack Program, which tries to simplify parents' holiday juggling acts.Every week, the program sends 588 local students-including Floyd's son home from school with enough food to feed a child over the weekend. During the holidays, students get a "double backpack", stocked with supplies for four days. This year, another group at the Rotary Club of Golden, of which Halderman is a member, 80 boxes packed for a similar Holiday Food Box Project and dropped them off at the local elementary school.Jonathan Adams / for NBC NewsEctor Taylor, 9, checks to see how he measures up to his grandmother, who often worries if she can provide enough for three growing boys.Some programs across the country go a step further and maintain children's school meal routines during the holiday season. Kids Unlimited in Medford, ore., which runs an academics-focused afterschool program during the school year, offers a 10-hour-a-day enrichment program for elementary-, middle-, and high school students during holiday breaks, on site at the students' schools. The holiday program includes meals through Sodexo, which gets reimbursed by the USDA, said Tom Cole, director of Kids Unlimited."Being able to feed kids is part of creating a level playing field, because kids can't learn or focus when they re hungry," Cole said. "We keep that going [during holidays] to take the pressure off families."These programs strive to make a difference, yet some who staff them are indignant that the government and public schools aren't doing more to help. Kathy Underhill points out that the SNAP program, or food stamps, usually picks up the slack when kids are out of school, but with cuts that kicked in November 1, lots of families are "waiting for the other shoe to drop."Cole says our country's education system "hasn't thought outside the box about social service issues they can help with. "Most schools don't have an infrastructure in place to support kids outside the normal school days." They don't have partnerships with community organizations like Kids Unlimited, he says, or aren't willing to open schools during breaks for outside programming.As for parents, they say they work hard to maintain the holiday spirit despite the added stress-but it's not easy. "I force a smile sometimes," Floyd said. "It's overwhelming." "You not only have those three meals a day, but you have to put something in that Christmas stocking."Education coverage for NBCNews.com is supported by a grant from the Gates Foundation.Related:This story was originally published on Tue Dec 24, 2013 5:35 PM EST

Somber remembrances in Newtown, at White House on anniversary of Sandy Hook shooting

 Robert F. Bukaty / Associated PressOn the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, firefighters lower the town's flag on Main Street to half-staff in honor of the victims.By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC NewsBells tolled 26 times in Newtown, Conn., on Saturday -- once for each of the victims who died a year ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in a brutal, senseless massacre carried out by disturbed loner Adam Lanza.The bells rang began sounding at St. Rose of Lima Church in Newtown beginning at 9:30 a.m. — the moment the gunman shot his way into the school on Dec. 14, 2012, the Associated Press reported. Connecticut's governor had asked for houses of worship across the state to do the same, and flags were lowered to half-staff around Connecticut. At the White House, President Barack Obama and wife, Michelle, paused for a moment of silence in honor of the victims, standing at a wooden table in the Map Room before three tiers of 26 lighted candles.  Jacquelyn Martin / APPresident Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama share a moment of silence in honor of the Newtown shooting victims on Saturday in the Map Room of the White House.Officials and many citizens of Newtown, still fatigued and traumatized, emphatically requested privacy, asking the American public and media stay away on the anniversary so that the families and friends of the victims could quietly mourn and reflect. "Newtown's ask of the world for the anniversary is to stay where you are and do acts of kindness and honor those we’ve lost," David Ackert, chairman of the Newtown Foundation and Newtown Action Alliance, told NBC Connecticut.Many Newtown residents were themselves staying away on the anniversary, including Neil Heslin, father of 6-year-old victim Jesse Lewis. He said that he planned to travel to New York on the anniversary to take part in a project honoring the victims, but also to avoid any spectacle that may encroach on the town."I need to get out of Dodge," he said.Her passion was animals. So Catherine Hubbard's parents decided the best way to honor the school shooting victim was by helping the creatures she love so much. The Associated Press reported that Newtown looked every bit the classic New England town on Saturday, with snow falling and many homes decorated with Christmas lights. But it said reminders of the citizens' private grief were everywhere. "God bless the families," read a sign posted at one house in the green and white colors of the Sandy Hook school, and a church posted that it was "open for prayer."Andrew Snow, a 49-year-old mechanic who was drinking coffee at the general store with a friend, told the AP it was an especially difficult day."You kind of hope the town can put it behind without actually forgetting about the victims," said Snow, who grew up in Newtown and is moving back from nearby Southbury to support the community. "But it's not easy to do. I think about it every day."In his weekly radio address, hours before the White House memorial, President Obama said the nation hasn't done enough to make its communities safer by keeping dangerous people from getting guns and healing troubled minds. Gun restrictions backed by the president in response to the shooting faced stiff opposition and ultimately stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate."We have to do more to keep dangerous people from getting their hands on a gun so easily. We have to do more to heal troubled minds. We have to do everything we can to protect our children from harm and make them feel loved, and valued, and cared for," Obama said. Elsewhere, elected officials, clergy and various organizations across the country held solemn remembrances of the massacre -- with local candlelight vigils as well as demonstrations calling for stricter gun laws.In Ann Arbor, Mich., the "We Are Newton Remembrance Vigil" was held on the steps of the Federal Building. The event, which will include Mayor John Hieftje, is sponsored by a local branch of Organizing for Action, a nationwide nonprofit that supports the policy aims of the Obama administration, including tighter gun control laws.RelatedMore coverage of the Newtown anniversary from NBC ConnecticutComplete coverage of the Newtown anniversary from NBCNews.comDecember 14 marks one year since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and some parents who lost their children that day are speaking out, aiming to make changes with the organization Sandy Hook Promise. NBC's Kate Snow reports. On the University of Pittsburgh campus in Pennsylvania, another branch of the organization hosted a “Remembering Newtown" candlelight vigil in recognition of the 20 children and six adults who were shot and killed by gunman Adam Lanza. Several event organizers across the northeast braced for winter weather and relocated their vigils indoors.Demand Action to End Gun Violence, a bipartisan coalition of U.S. mayors to stem the proliferation of illegal guns and to encourage stringent federal gun ownership legislation, will host a variety of events across the country. Its events are geared to honor the victims of the shooting Sandy Hook, as well as other victims of gun violence.On Thursday, family and friends of the Sandy Hook shooting victims traveled to Washington, D.C., to honor their loved ones through a solemn vigil and volunteer work. The group was joined by other gun violence victims from across the country. Matt Mcclain / AFP - Getty ImagesMiranda Pacchiana (C) of Newtown, Connecticut, holds a candle at the conclusion ofThe National Vigil for Victims of Gun Violence on December 12, 2013 at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.During the vigil, the bell at the National Cathedral rang for three minutes to represent the lives claimed by firearms every year.Although remembrances of the shooting have been taking place over the past week, commemorations of the victims have occurred all year long.There is, for example, The Sandy Ground Project: Where Angels Play, which built 26 playgrounds in areas leveled by Hurricane Sandy, each named after one of the Sandy Hook victims, WVIT reported.There is also the Newtown Documentation Project, which sought to preserve the thousands of letters and handmade gifts that have poured into the town in the past year.NBC News' Miranda Leitsinger contributed to this report.