
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997              TAG: 9704020489

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY CINDY CLAYTON and LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITERS 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:  123 lines

BERKLEY FIRE DEFIES RESCUERS' EFFORTS TWO BOYS' DEATHS LEAVE FAMILY, FRIENDS FEELING HELPLESS.

Virginia Bryant suffered second-degree burns as she tried to fight the fire that threatened her grandsons.

A neighbor scaled a ladder to the second story of the burning house, hoping to save the two boys.

But their efforts were in vain. Jerome Bryant, 5, and his brother, Morris, 3, died as fire raced through their Berkley home early Tuesday morning. Morris would have turned 4 Thursday.

Virginia Bryant was listed in serious but stable condition in a hospital Tuesday. She suffered second-degree burns on her hands and arms, said Jack Goldhorn, fire department spokesman.

The fire started at about 1:15 a.m. in the 500 block of Appomattox St., at the intersection of Lunenberg Street.

The tragedy came one year to the day after another Berkley child, Taylor Ricks, 3, also died violently, struck by a stray bullet during a shootout involving three men. She was killed when she lifted the blinds in a second-floor bedroom window on Hough Avenue.

Four months later, Blanca H. Garcia, 7, of Pendleton Street, died in an apartment in Portsmouth's Park View section after she was caught in an exchange of gunfire stemming from a dispute involving three men.

Neighbors who tried to help with the rescue Tuesday were frustrated that they couldn't do more.

``We ran outside and all the neighbors just started trying to pull together,'' said Fred Roundtree, who lives across the street. Roundtree said he and others helped Virginia Bryant out of her burning house, though she wanted to go back up the stairs to save her grandsons, who lived with her.

When Roundtree got back outside, he climbed the ladder and opened a window on the second floor. ``By the time I got the window open, the smoke hit me in the face and I fell down from the ladder,'' he said.

``I said, `The kids are in there, they're still in there.' ''

Firefighters at Station 8 - about three blocks from the house - arrived at the scene about three minutes after they received the call, but the fire had swept up the stairs and the house was engulfed in flames by the time they arrived.

Firefighters extended their ladder to the second floor to try to save the boys, but also were driven back by the flames. The fire was brought under control in about 23 minutes, Goldhorn said.

``The firemen told us the big boy (Jerome) was lying on top of the small boy like he was trying to protect him or something,'' Roundtree said.

Goldhorn said the two boys were found together on the second floor of the house.

Both boys were pronounced dead at the scene.

Though fire investigators said the blaze was not suspicious, they did not release a cause. Goldhorn said there was no smoke detector in the house.

Virginia Bryant and the boys were the only occupants of the house, Goldhorn said. The boys' mother, Karen Bryant, stopped by from time to time, but their grandmother had legal custody, he said.

Karen Bryant and the boys' father, Carlton Darden, surveyed the house Tuesday afternoon to see whether they could salvage anything, but there wasn't much left.

The singed remains of photo albums, certificates and pictures the boys had drawn sat on the sidewalk to the side of the house. Charred furniture sat on the front porch and the remains of a rug lay by the curb.

The house was a total loss, with damages estimated between $50,000 and $60,000, Goldhorn said.

``It's just hard to believe,'' said Derrick Brown, a former neighbor who grew up on Appomattox Street. Brown said he saw news of the tragedy on television and decided to drive by the house.

``They never really knew what life's about,'' he said of the two boys. ``They didn't have time, and now they're gone.''

Roundtree said he still was trying to make sense of what had happened.

The shock of the tragedy had barely sunk in Tuesday afternoon.

``I know they're in a better place now. They are definitely in a better place,'' he said.

``It makes you start thinking why these things happen. . . and what can we do in our community to save our kids,'' said Horace Downing, a long-time Berkley resident and former president of the Beacon Light Civic League.

``And it always happens to our little angels.''

The deaths shook the tight-knit community, Councilman Paul Riddick said late Tuesday afternoon.

``If anything happens to one person, it happens to everyone,'' Riddick said. ``(Kids) are always the most precious part of our community. It's sad to the entire community.''

Riddick, whose ward includes Berkley, said an organization called the Southside Task Force plans to go door-to-door to check for smoke alarms.

Kenny Alexander, civic league president, said he had been on the phone since daybreak with Fire Chief Donald Haupt to come up with ways to prevent future tragedies.

One solution was fire prevention classes.

``It's very unfortunate that it has happened,'' said Alexander, who owns Metropolitan Funeral Home. ``We're both alarmed by it, we're both disturbed and we think that the prevention program will prove to be. . . warranted.''

With that program, residents could receive free smoke detectors and children can learn what to do in the event of a fire, he said.

``We're looking at trying to keep the citizens informed,'' Alexander said. ``We're working with the various departments so that Berkley can be a safe place in the home and outside the home.''

The brothers' deaths mirrored another tragic fire on the same block 12 years ago. On Feb. 15, 1985, two young brothers and their sister - ages 1, 2 and 3 - died in a fire that gutted their home. Travis, Tiffany and Lloyd Howard III were all found in the attic of the home at 509 Appomattox St. They apparently died of smoke inhalation. Fire investigators ruled that blaze accidental. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot

Karen D. Bryant, right, mother of the two children who died in a

Berkley house fire, shares her grief with a friend of the boys'

grandmother. The tragedy came one year after another Berkley child,

3-year-old Taylor Ricks, died violently. Ricks was struck by a

stray bullet.

The fire occurred about 1:15 a.m. Tuesday here in the 500 block of

Appomattox St. in Norfolk's Berkley section. Fire investigators did

not release a cause, although arson is not suspected. There was no

smoke detector in the house.

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