These are the six children who died in a fire at their Indiana home as their father tried to save them.
On Jan. 22, flames ripped through a South Bend home, claiming the lives of Demetrius, 10; Davida, 9; Deontay, 5; D’Angelo, 4; and 17-month-old Faith.
Angel, 11, was flown to Riley Children’s Health in Indianapolis to recover. On Friday, the Navarre Middle School student was taken off life support and pronounced dead.
Father David Smith, 67, sat down for an interview the day after the fire and described his efforts to save the children after the fire broke out.
Smith explained how he and his children were watching movies in his upstairs bedroom when one of his boys returned from the bathroom and alerted him to a suspicious odor.
David Smith, a 67-year-old Louisiana man, sat down for an interview with his daughter Tosha Washington, a day after a house fire claimed the lives of his six other children
Angel Smith, 11, was taken to an Indianapolis hospital for specialized treatment before succumbing to her injuries
“He ran back and said, ‘Dad, I smell smoke, I think it’s a fire,’” Smith said.
When the 67-year-old went to take a look himself, he saw smoke billowing from the ground floor of the house before flames shot out and forced him back upstairs.
“I noticed the smoke was so thick and black you couldn’t even see anything,” Smith said.
He tried to kick out the windows on the second floor.
‘I fainted and stuck my head out the window, got some fresh air and tried to crawl back to where the babies were. I got part of the way and the smoke took up all my oxygen. I dived out the window.’
Three other men joined him outside to kick in the front door, but Smith was unable to enter the house because of the roaring flames.
Tosha Washington, the siblings’ older sister, said she received a call from Demetrius as she left for work.
‘I thought it was my father… but it was my brother Demetrius. He was like, ‘Tosha, the house on fire,'” she said.
Deontay Smith, 5 (left), and Faith Smith, who was just over a year old, died in the Jan. 22 house fire that also killed their four siblings
Demetrius Smith, 10, called his older sister after the fire broke out. She instructed him to call 911 before they lost contact
Davida Smith, 9 (left) and D’Angelo Smith, 4 (right) died in the fire
Smith said he saw smoke on the first floor before flames shot toward him, forcing him to return upstairs. He then started kicking out windows
When she asked where their father was, Demetrius replied that he thought he was going downstairs, but that he might have gone out the window.
Washington instructed the fifth grader to call 911 before they lost contact.
‘I kept saying, “Hello?” and I looked at my phone, the phone was hung up,” she said. “By the time I reached the house, the house was on fire.”
The local community rallied around Smith in the aftermath of the fire. Brittney Baily, host for B100 radio, joined South Bend First Nazarene Church to collect donations including clothing and non-perishable food items.
After the ride on January 27, Baily expressed her gratitude on Facebook. “I can’t thank everyone enough who donated to the Smith family today,” she wrote.
“David Smith came and asked that we surround him in prayer. As we looked into his eyes and knew he was going through a journey of grief losing six precious children, we were blessed to pray for him.
“We did this for him to honor the beautiful, innocent lives that were brutally taken from this world.”
The local community rallied around Smith in the aftermath of the fire, organizing a donation drive and setting up a GoFundMe campaign
Community members left a memorial outside the blackened shell of the house and gathered for a balloon release on January 28
The next day, people gathered outside the blackened shell of the house on LaPorte Ave to release dozens of balloons into the sky.
Elijah Luciano, a neighbor and close friend of Smith, organized a GoFundMe to help with funeral costs.
“A house fire took his beloved children… leaving him lost and alone with only the clothes on his back,” Luciano wrote on the campaign page.
“Our hope is to raise enough money to lay his babies to rest in a beautiful place.”
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation. Smith claims he had experienced electrical problems at home before, as did the former residents who moved in August.
A July inspection report revealed electrical problems throughout the home, which was previously listed as Section 8 housing. Many electrical outlets were not working and some were burned.
However, the home was removed from the voucher program after the previous residents moved out and therefore no longer subject to inspections.
Two firefighters were injured in their attempts to rescue the children. One, identified as Roy White, fell through the second floor and was hospitalized. He was able to return home and remains off duty.
Another firefighter suffered minor burns and was allowed to return to work after treatment.