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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 14, 1994                   TAG: 9401140109
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

ACCOUNT OPENED FOR FIRE VICTIMS

New River Community Action has set up a bank account for donations to a Christiansburg couple whose 2-year-old daughter died in a Tuesday house fire.

Checks may be mailed to: The Amber Nichols Memorial Fund, c/o First National Bank of Christiansburg, Attention: Larry Bowman, P.O. Box 600, Christiansburg. 24073.

Amber Nichols-Ratcliffe was the daughter of Ann Nichols and David Ratcliffe. Their home on Lester Street caught fire after a baby-sitter used gasoline to try to get a woodstove-fire going.

Despite the sitter's best efforts, she was unable to bring the fire under control or to reach the child, who was later pronounced dead at Montgomery Regional Hospital after rescue workers plucked her out of the house through a window.

This is the second time in just over a year Ratcliffe and Nichols have been victims of a house fire. There was a chimney fire at the house they lived at in the Plum Creek community in December 1992.

by CNB