Fire kills 2 Chicago children while mom is in Iraq

January 06, 2010 04:50 AM

By Stefano Esposito
The Chicago Sun-Times

LANSING, Ill. — If the dreaded news comes, it’s supposed to arrive stateside with a knock at the front door and a visit from two somber soldiers.

That tragedy played out in reverse Monday when a Lansing soldier serving in Iraq was told her two small children had perished in a fire while napping at home.

“She’s devastated, and she is trying to hold on,” said Clint Towers, who is Areah Brown-Towers’ father-in-law and grandfather to the two victims — Joshua, 2, and Jeremiah, 5.

Clint Towers said the American Red Cross was making arrangements Tuesday to bring the grieving mother home — perhaps as soon as Thursday.

The fire broke out Monday afternoon in the family home in the 3500 block of 171st Street in Lansing, fire investigators said. The children’s father, Leroy Towers, 40, was working in another part of the home when a neighbor knocked on his front door, after seeing smoke billowing out of an upstairs window, investigators said.

Towers plucked his children from their second-floor bedroom, and tried desperately to revive them, said Lansing Fire Chief Dan Gregorovic. Joshua and Jeremiah were later pronounced dead at St. Margaret Mercy hospital in Hammond.

The blaze remained under investigation Tuesday, but Gregorovic said there’s no suspicion of foul play. Gregorovic also said it appears a smoke alarm near where the children had been sleeping “did not look operational.”

Leroy Towers, a Cook County correctional officer, was too distraught to talk to reporters Tuesday, his father, Clint Towers, said.

Clint Towers said he believed his daughter-in-law was serving her second tour of duty overseas. Areah Brown-Towers is employed as a Cook County correctional officer but is listed as being on military leave, said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for the Cook County sheriff’s office.

A teary-eyed Clint Towers, who lives in Chicago, said he will carry many dear memories of his grandchildren. On Tuesday, as he stood on his son’s porch, he recalled having Leroy Towers, Joshua and Jeremiah over for Christmas at his home in the city.

“I was playing with them under the Christmas tree,” Towers said. “I bought them two little guitars. They said, ‘Granddad, we want to play with you.’ . . . So now my heart is heavy.”