Family mourns after Coatesville blaze that killed 3 children

The house that less than 48 hours earlier had been the setting for a children's birthday party became a place to grieve yesterday for a Coatesville neighborhood.

Outside the charred shell of 117 N. Second Ave., family and friends embraced and residents offered condolences. Balloons, toys and stuffed animals spilled over the front of the porch - memorials to the three youngsters who died in a fire, only hours after the birthday party.

Jessica Torres, 22, stood in front of the house and recalled how she tried to save her two sons.

"I turned around to reach in and get them, and I couldn't see," said Torres. "The smoke overpowered everything."

Torres' sons Tyrone Hill, 4, and Tyzhier Hill, 3, along with Torres' brother Brian Kelly Westmoreland Jr., 11, died in the fire late Saturday. Torres and her mother, Desiree Wylie, 38, who was also Brian's mother, were able to escape.

Coatesville fire officials have not yet determined the cause of the two-alarm blaze that was reported at 11:54 p.m. Police officers only several blocks away arrived first at the scene to discover flames shooting out the front and sides of the building, said Kristin Geiger, spokeswoman for the city of Coatesville.

Hours earlier, the family had celebrated the birthdays of Brian and Tyzhier, who were born Sept. 6 and Sept. 13, respectively. Torres awoke to what she described as a loud boom and then her mother yelling "Help, 911!"

Torres, who was sleeping in a third-floor room next door to her boys' bedroom, went in to wake them. Surrounded by smoke, she broke out the glass of a window, climbed out onto the roof, and reached back in to get the boys, only to be overcome by smoke and shooting flames, she said.

"They were calling for me," Torres said of her children.

Torres was eventually rescued from the third-floor roof. Her mother had climbed out of a second-floor window to a landing over the porch. Both were helped by a passerby who did not want to be identified. About 100 first responders worked at the scene. Several adjacent homes had smoke damage.

Brian had probably tried to warn his mother and get out through a door on the first floor, said Tracie Shelton, Wylie's sister. The boy was found on the first floor, and the Hill brothers were found in their bedroom on the third floor, Geiger said.

The family had rented the home for many years from Dallas Johnson of Coatesville. Wylie said there were working smoke alarms in the home. Johnson said there also was a fire extinguisher in the house.

"I'm just so sad for the family," Johnson said.

Yesterday, family, friends and strangers lingered outside the burned-out home. Funeral arrangements were being planned, and a memorial fund was established.

Jason Palaia, the principal of Friendship Elementary School, where Brian Westmoreland was a fourth grader, stopped by with school psychologist Elana Betts to offer their help.

Grief counseling stations staffed by counselors, psychologists and mental-health professionals have been set up throughout the Coatesville Area School District, said Superintendent Richard Como.

Carrying a handful of brightly colored balloons, Pat Brown, of the Little Flock day-care center in Coatesville, walked toward the home yesterday. Brown had at one time cared for each of the boys, and the Hill brothers were still attending her center.

"I closed today, and when we get back, we will plant a tree for each of the kids," Brown said tearfully. "They will be greatly missed."

Brian was known in his family as "Pop Pop," because he aspired to be a grown-up man, taking care of his family, Wylie said. He won school awards for citizenship, friendliness and spelling, Wylie said.

"He would say, 'When I get rich, I'm going to take care of everybody,' " Wylie said of her son.

Tyrone attended a Head Start center in Coatesville and joined his brother Tyzhier at Little Flock before and after school.

"They were bad," in the way little boys are, Torres said, smiling as she remembered. "They drove me crazy, and had me running. They were the best."