Father, Two Daughters Killed in Indiana Blaze

GARY, Ind.-- A father tried to save his two young daughters as their home goes up in flames, but firefighters arrived to find all three unconscious near the door on the second floor.

A fire broke out around 3:30 on Tuesday morning at the kitchen stove, officials said. James Dickerson tried to put the apparent grease fire out, burning himself severely. But as the fire continued to spread, he grabbed his daughters and ran for the door.

Firefighters found 31-year-old Dickerson and his daughters, 3-year-old Beatrice and 1-month-old Kalyse right near the door, overcome by smoke.

"I don't really know what happened. When I left, he had something on the stove. He was up when I left because he locked the door behind me," said Dickerson's widow, Constance Dickerson.

Dickerson's wife was bringing her husband's cousin home when she came back to find her house ablaze and family deceased.

The toddler had been crying earlier, Dickerson said, speculating her husband went to calm the tot and dozed off. A pan of leftover grease, combined with whatever he was cooking, apparently ignited on the stove to create a hot, smoky fire.

His cousin and downstairs neighbor Clifford Danzy saw firefighters bring the bodies out.

"I smelled something burning. At first I looked outside, then I heard my alarm go off," basement resident Clifford Danzy said. He called the fire department and trucks from down the block came roaring his way.

"They got here in enough time, but not enough time to save them," Danzy said, adding that he didn't see the family's car, and told fire dispatchers he didn't think anyone else was home.

The first-floor apartment was vacant -- a mother and daughter had moved out just Monday.

"I don't want to go back into that apartment. I don't want to see it. I know exactly where they were when the firemen got there," Constance Dickerson said Tuesday evening.

Medics frantically worked on the victims at the scene but all three victims were pronounced dead on arrival Tuesday morning at The Methodist Hospitals emergency room, Lake County Coroner David Pastrick said. Pastrick said it appeared they died from smoke inhalation.

The couple had apparently complained to owner Ryan Walls, of Schererville, about the condition of their apartment at at 520 Maryland St. Walls bought the building earlier this year, but no improvements had been made.

Based on a complaint lodged against the landlord, city inspectors toured the apartment Friday and found several code violations, but nothing to deem the building immediately uninhabitable, Commissioner Benjamin Robinson said.

The results of the inspection had not been delivered to Walls yet, he added.

Dickerson won a college scholarship and at one point was being scouted by the NBA, his wife said. He was attending nurse's aide school at Specialty Medical, she said.

The couple met while attending Calumet College. They married last June and had moved into the apartment across from U.S. Steel Yard shortly after Thanksgiving.

Little Beatrice, named after her paternal grandmother, was "inquisitive, really independent. She didn't want no one helping her," her mother said.

Brother Daisimeon, 4, was with Constance's parents visiting relatives in Tennessee this week.

"He loved his kids," Danzy, James Dickerson's lifelong friend, said Tuesday outside his charred home.

"He was a good family man," added friend Cassandra Person.

Constance described her husband as "very loving, compassionate, kind-hearted all the way" who adored his kids and "gave them anything they wanted."

She said the apartment had smoke detectors but they were not working properly.

"I have no insurance on the newborn, no clothes for myself or my son and I'm going to have to look for a place to stay. But right now I'm just trying to face reality. It's not really hit me yet," Constance said.

Post-Tribune

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