Ga. Fire Engulfs Home, Takes Lives of Woman, Four Children

The fire broke out just after 1 a.m. Saturday morning.

ByABC News
April 27, 2013, 1:17 PM

April 27, 2013— -- A woman and four children died in a blazing fire that engulfed a single-story brick home in Newnan, Ga., early Saturday morning.

Alonna McCrary, 28, along with two of her children, Eriel McCrary, 5, and Nikia White, 2, died in the fire, according to a statement from the Newnan Police Department. Messiah White, 3, and McKenzie Florence, 1, who were sleeping at McCrary's home, also did not survive the flames.

The fire broke out just after 1 a.m. on Saturday. McCrary's 11-year-old daughter, Nautica, was awoken by her mother telling her the house was on fire and to run, the news release from the Newnan Police Department stated.

"She couldn't see anything, they were bumping into each other," Nautica's aunt, Roxanne Arnold told the Atlanta Journal Constitution. "They had to feel around and she was hollering and screaming. Her mother kept telling her to get out."

Nautica was the sole survivor of the fire.

She was taken to a local hospital for smoke inhalation, but has since been released and is in the care of an aunt, Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner spokesman Glenn Allen told ABC News.

Allen said the fire originated from an electrical panel in the home's den. Authorities determined the fire was accidental, he said.

Investigators found a smoke alarm in the rubble from inside the home, but it was so badly damaged that Allen could not say whether the device was working prior to the fire.

"My heart goes out to any of the families affected, and the 11-year-old daughter that did escape," Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told ABC News. "She's going to be traumatized."

The bodies of the mother and children were taken to the state crime lab for an autopsy at a later date, Allen said. Allen said he did not know where the bodies were found inside of the charred home.

It is unclear if Messiah and McKenzie were related to McCrary, Hudgens said.