D.C. fire kills 5; boy in grave condition

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By Gary Emerling

An electrical failure caused an early-morning fire to roar through a home in Northeast on Thursday, killing two children and three adults and leaving an 11-year-old in extremely grave condition, D.C. officials said.

"It's probably the worst way any of us could imagine starting a new year," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty said Thursday afternoon in front of the burned-out home on Jackson Street. "This is one of the greatest tragedies this city has ever faced."

D.C. fire department spokesman Alan Etter said officials received multiple reports of a fire on the 1000 block of Jackson Street in Northeast just after 7 a.m. Personnel arrived within one minute and found flames and smoke emanating from the two-story, single-family home.

Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, said nine people were in the home at the time of the fire. Those killed in the blaze were identified as Joseph Wilson, 10; Kaniya Gant, 5; Kaniya's mother and father, Tawanna Gant, 22, and Keith Nelson, 23; and Charles Smith, 72.

Authorities were not sure of the relationship among the boy, the elder man and the other three victims, according to the Associated Press.

Mr. Etter said an 11-year-old boy was taken from the house to Children's National Medical Center in grave condition. He said Thursday evening that reports that the boy had died were incorrect.

Three others -- adults Oscar and Michelle Wilson and a 15-year-old boy -- were taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Chief Dennis L. Rubin said the blaze resulted from an accidental electrical failure between the home's basement and first floor.

He said the balloon-frame construction of the house -- a style popular in the 1930s, '40s and '50s that he said would not be allowed under safety standards today -- allowed the fire to move rapidly and threaten a home next door.

About 120 firefighters battled the two-alarm blaze, which Mr. Etter said was extinguished within an hour. Officials had not determined whether the home contained working smoke alarms.