1963 — Dec 25, Fire, portable home oil heater tipped over, Charleston, SC                  –12-13

12-13  Blanchard. Either critically injured Walter Johnson died, on NFPA spreadsheet is in error.

 

–13  National Fire Protection Assoc. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003).

–12  Bugbee. “Fire Protection Developments in 1963.” NFPA Quarterly, 57/3, Jan 1964, p. 213.

–12  AP. “12 Children in One Family Die in Fire.” Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. 12-25-1963, 1.^[1]

–12  UPI. “12 Children Awaiting Santa Killed in Fire.” Raleigh Register, Beckley WV, 12-26-1963, 10.

 

Narrative Information

 

Bugbee/NFPA: “…12 were killed by a fire December 25, at Charleston, South Carolina (oil stove fuel spilled).” (Bugbee. “Fire Protection Developments in 1963.” NFPA Quarterly, 57/3, Jan 1964, p. 213.)

 

Newspapers

 

Dec 25: Charleston, S.C. – (AP) — Twelve children in one family died early today when an oil heater exploded [see Dec 26], turning their crowded frame house into an inferno and melting Christmas toys like wax. The victims, ranging in age from 8 months to 20 year old, were all sleeping in one upstairs room when the oil heater exploded downstairs at 2:51 a.m. Flames and smoke immediately poured up a stairwell, trapping them in their beds.

 

“Eight boys and four girls died in the flaming room. Nine of them were the children of Mary Lee Johnson, 47, and the other three were her grandchildren. Mrs. Johnson, her husband, Walter Johnson, 51, their son Nathaniel, 16, and an unidentified friend of the family escaped. Walter Johnson was critically burned in a futile attempt to get upstairs to save the trapped children.

 

“Charleston County Coroner Jennings Cauthen said Johnson, Nathaniel and the unidentified man were laying linoleum downstairs in the living room and either tried to move or accidentally tilted the oil heater. Burning oil spilled on the floor and while they were trying to extinguish it the oil heater exploded. Firemen found the 12 bodies crowded into three beds and a closet in the single upper room. Downstairs was a child’s plastic rocking horse melted by the heat and charred wagons, dolls, a football and other toys that had been laid out in waiting for the children when they awoke Christmas morning.

 

“Several neighbors tried to reach the upstairs bedroom by entering it from adjoining rooftops, but the heat belching into the small room from the raging fire below was too intense.

 

“The Negro family was sleeping in the wooden house which was one block from Charleston’s main street.

 

“Children of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson who died in the fire were Irene, 13; Benjamin, 12; Annette, 11; Raymond, 10; Althamedes, 6, Zoraida, 3. Mrs. Johnson’s children by a previous marriage who perished were Mildred Wilson, 20; Leila Wilson, 19; Thomasina Wilson, 17. Grandchildren who died, all named Wilson, were Anthony, 8 months; Jerome, 4; and Jacquetta, 3.” (AP. “12 Children in One Family Die in Fire.” Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. 12-25-1963, 1.)

 

Dec 26: “Charleston, S.C. (UPI) – Twelve sleeping children never awoke Wednesday to receive the Santa Claus surprises arranged for them.

 

“A portable oil heater tipped over by their parents as they put gifts under the Christmas tree spewed flames throughout the wooden tenement where the children slept killing them as they lay in their beds….They wer asleep in one room on the upper floor of the two-story structure in a slum section of this old city at the time of the pre-dawn fire.

 

“Fire department officials said the fire apparently started when either Walter Johnson, 51, or his wife, Mary Lee, 47, attempted to move the portable heater and it tipped over. Flaming liquid spread throughout the structure. Bodies of the children were found in bed – five on a studio couch, two on a single bed, three on a folding cot and two more on a pallet on the floor….

 

“Johnson was critically burned in the blaze. His wife was the only other person to escape. She was not injured….” (UPI. “12 Children Awaiting Santa Killed in Fire.” Raleigh Register, Beckley, WV, 12-26-1963, p. 10.)

 

Sources

 

Associated Press. “12 Children in One Family Die in Fire.” Tucson Daily Citizen, AZ. 12-25-1963, 1. At: http://newspaperarchive.com/fullpagepdfviewer?img=92270107&sterm=fire

 

Bugbee, Percy (NFPA General Manager). “Fire Protection Developments in 1963.” Quarterly of the National Fire Protection Association, Vol. 57, No. 3, January 1964, pp. 212-213.

 

National Fire Protection Association. Spreadsheet on Large Loss of Life Fires (as of Feb 2003). (Emailed to B. W. Blanchard by Jacob Ratliff, NFPA Archivist/Taxonomy Librarian, 7-8-2013.)

 

UPI (United Press International). “12 Children Awaiting Santa Killed in Fire.” Raleigh Register, Beckley, WV, 12-26-1963, p. 10. Accessed 2-16-2020 at:  https:/newspaperarchive.com/beckley-raleigh-register-dec-26-1963-p-10/

 

[1] We assume Walter Johnson died from his “critical” burns, thus explaining the two different numbers.