ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 1, 1993                   TAG: 9305010123
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LON WAGNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FATAL FIRE FOCUS IS ON KITCHEN

Evidence gathered from the ashes of a mobile-home fire that killed two young children Thursday afternoon suggests that the fire started in the kitchen, where the children's mother said she had been cooking minutes before the blaze, an investigator said.

"Everything is pointing to the feeling she had about her being in there cooking and it starting in the kitchen/dining area," Franklin County Deputy Fire Marshall Ben Cook said.

Shenandoah Hanks, the 17-year-old mother of the victims, said Thursday night that she left the children in the Fork Mountain mobile home while she took some spaghetti she had just cooked to her mother.

Hanks' mother lives just up a private lane from Hanks, but by the time Hanks returned to her house it was on fire.

No charges have been placed against Hanks. Cook said investigators would issue a report late next week to Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood.

The mobile home, located off Virginia 845 about 12 miles south of Rocky Mount, apparently was engulfed in flames within minutes of catching fire.

Cook said rescue workers arrived at the mobile home 18 minutes after receiving a call, too late to save the children.

"Unfortunately, in 18 minutes and with that amount of fire, you're going to get total destruction," Cook said.

The bodies of 2-year-old Daniel Lee Hanks II and his 1-year-old sister, Trinity Faith Hanks, were recovered from the flattened mobile home Thursday evening.

Shenandoah Hanks and her husband, Daniel Lee, lost both their children and all their possessions.

The children's grandmother had said Thursday night that she didn't know where the family would get money to have the children buried, but relatives said Friday that the children will be buried on a hillside near the family home.

Persons interested in donating household goods or money to the Hanks family can contact the Franklin County chapter of the American Red Cross at: 147 Floyd Ave., Rocky Mount 24151; (703)-483-5621.

Keywords:
FATALITY 


 by CNB