By Cherise M. Newsome
The Virginian-Pilot
PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Rachel and Rahliel Douglas, 9-month-old twins, had just learned how to make a symphony out of pots and pans.
“They had found a new toy. Grandpa gave them a pie pan,” grandmother Felicia Hasty recalled Saturday. “They were beating that pie pan and making noise and just enjoying themselves.”
Marcell Speller, their 3-year-old cousin, would one day teach them what he had learned since they lived together, Hasty said. He could count in English and Spanish, add and subtract. He knew his shapes as well as the number of sides on an octagon and a hexagon.
“I know everybody thinks their grandson is the smartest, but he really was,” she said.
An overnight house fire cut those young lives short Saturday. The family is holding on to its faith and fond memories, Hasty said.
The fire spread quickly. Orlando and Jalisa Douglas, parents of the twins, woke to a house full of thick, black smoke after falling asleep on the couch, Hasty said. The couple had skipped another family member’s birthday dinner at a restaurant to stay home with the kids, she said.
Orlando fought smoke and flames to try to rescue the children.
“He tried and tried and tried,” she said. “The smoke just overtook the house.”
Marcell’s mom, Evelyn, wasn’t home at the time. Jalisa Douglas ran out to call 911, Hasty said, and Orlando Douglas soon followed to get extra help.
“But by that time, the place was just engulfed, and they couldn’t get back in,” Hasty said.
Firefighters arrived at the Highland-Biltmore area home around 1 a.m. and carried the children from the brutal flames caused by an extension cord connected to an electric space heater in the twins’ room, Deputy Fire Chief Mike Stockton said. The cord was touching clothing, which ignited, and the fire spread from there.
The home had heating, but this winter’s record cold caused a draft in the room, Hasty said. So the parents added the space heater. Marcell slept in another room.
Flames had engulfed about half the house when help arrived. It was too late for the twins. Firefighters thought Marcell might survive and began treating the boy before an ambulance took him to Maryview Hospital. He didn’t make it either. Stockton couldn’t recall any recent Portsmouth house fire in which a child younger than 12 had died.
Later Saturday morning, cars slowed as drivers examined the charred home among a row of small, tidy houses. A car and minivan sat in the driveway as a cleanup crew cleared debris. A dusty toddler car seat sat on the front porch.
An orange “condemned” sign posted on the screen door didn’t deter relatives from walking up. One woman who identified herself as a great-grandmother tiptoed the walkway to the door and froze for a few moments. She paced across the front of the house, peeking inside the door and glassless window.
She held her head down, then walked back to the car and began sobbing. She sat in the passenger seat and leaned into a handful of tears. Family members at the house were too distraught to talk and drove off.
Neighbors gathered across the street. One man’s dog had been barking when the fire started. Another neighbor was woken up by the commotion. All mourned for the children as they stood on porches or in driveways. They stared at the home, shaking their heads, wondering why and how it happened.
Family members are shaken, too.
“I don’t think Jalisa has really processed it all yet. I think she’s still in shock,” Hasty said. “And Evelyn, she’s taking it pretty hard.”
Hasty, a Norfolk pastor, said God will see them through.
“We need all the prayers, all the love. Just send it our way, especially for my babies,” she said. “Just keep them lifted in prayer.” -- Pilot producer Sean Kennedy contributed to this report.
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(c)2015 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)
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