Counselors Help Clairton Students Cope With Death Of 3 Classmates

Clairton City School District students returned to class Monday for the first time since a fire claimed the lives of three of their classmates.

Three children were killed in a townhouse fire in Clairton early Friday morning. Sisters Rachel Finn, 9, and Deausha Faulk, 6, died, along with 2-year-old Michael Zigler, the Allegheny County medical examiner said. Zigler was the sisters' cousin.

Counselors greeted students and staff Monday for anyone who needed support. Parents told Channel 11 some children are handling the deaths better than others, but all are still stunned.

"My daughter is 8-years-old. She's handling it in a strange way. She's really dealing with it though. Children are very resilient," said Derrick Hamilton.

The school district set up a fund over the weekend to help the victims' families.

Donations can be sent to the Clairton City School District administrative office at 502 Mitchell Avenue, Clairton, Pa. 15025.

Donors should include a notation that states their donation is for the fire victims' families.

Channel 11 spoke with Zigler’s emotional mother. “We lost three babies in one day,” said Shawna Zigler. “Every day I’m going to miss him.”

Firefighters found the three children asleep on the second floor of the home. They were transported to Jefferson Hospital, where they died.

Bob Full, of Allegheny County Emergency Management, said crews did “everything humanly possible to save these young children.”

According to Markel Finn, the mother of the sisters said she was asleep on the couch when she heard the smoke alarms but could not locate the children.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Donald Brucker, a deputy Allegheny County fire marshal.

The fire started in the kitchen, and according to investigators, there were no space heaters that could have caused it. The home had four working, battery-operated smoke alarms.

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Clairton police were the first to arrive when the fire was reported just before 1:15 a.m., Brucker said. Two officers went into the home but were driven back by smoke and heat. When firefighters arrived moments later, they entered with hoses and found the three children in two upstairs bedrooms.

Neighbors told Channel 11 that they watch helplessly as the home continued to burn.

"I went down there. Smoke was coming out of the back of the windows," said neighbor Monique Brown.

Tray Daniels, 12, lives down the block and said he knew all three children who died. His sister was good friends with Finn. "We rode the same bus to school every day," Daniels said. "I think my sister thinks it was a dream."

A 41-year-old neighbor, who identified himself only as Jason, said he saw a lot of smoke when he arrived home from his job at Kentucky Fried Chicken and saw a woman outside screaming that her children were still inside.

"It was so hard for them to get the kids out because the door was hot from the fire," he said of the firefighters' rescue efforts. He estimated it took at least 20 minutes to reach the children. "It was terrible," he said.

The home is one of 420 units in a town house complex, and the family had been renting the unit for about six months.