ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 22, 1996 TAG: 9601220071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE STRUZZI STAFF WRITER
note: above
MARK LEFTWICH WAS AMONG the first to know of the plight of his children and their grandmother but could only watch as the blaze took its toll.
Ten minutes after Mark Leftwich said goodbye to his children Saturday night, he heard the fire call on his car scanner. People were trapped by a wall of fire at 1228 Stewart Ave. S.E.
It was them.
Leftwich sped back to his ex-wife's home, where he had just spent the evening in horseplay with his three sons. Mark, Clyde and Patrick often passed the time wrestling with their dad.
Since the divorce a year ago, Leftwich had tried to spend as much time with his children as he could.
And this Saturday had been no different.
"I stayed with them almost two hours," Leftwich said. "I wished I had stayed there another 30 minutes - another 30 minutes."
About 9:30, his sons headed for bed. Leftwich's 3-year-old daughter, Nancy, was already asleep upstairs. He kissed his children, hugged them and told them he loved them. Then he left.
It was his last goodbye.
When Leftwich arrived at the fire scene, the former volunteer fireman pulled on the protective gear he had in his car and ran to the house. But he could not save his children and their grandmother.
"I got around to the back of the house, and they told me there was no use," Leftwich said.
Firefighters had pulled his 6-year-old son, Mark, from an upstairs room. For 45 minutes Leftwich watched rescue workers try to save the boy - to no avail. He was pronounced dead at Community Hospital of the Roanoke Valley.
Leftwich's other sons, Clyde, 5, and Patrick, 4; Nancy; and his former mother-in-law, Goldie Christine Duncan, 46, also died in the blaze that investigators believe reached more than 700 degrees.
Patricia Leftwich, the children's mother, was upstairs when she smelled smoke and went downstairs to investigate. By the time she turned around, flames had engulfed the staircase, barricading her four children and mother upstairs. She then ran to get help.
Investigators believe the fire began at an electrical heater downstairs, moving quickly to the upstairs room.
Firefighters desperately tried to beat back the flames. But Duncan and the three Leftwich children had already succumbed to smoke and extreme heat by the time they found them.
"When you inhale one gulp of 700-degree air, you go completely out," Roanoke Fire Chief Jim Grigsby said. "You go unconscious. There's not a lot of reaction time."
On Sunday, boards had been placed across the two front doors of the charred structure. A steady stream of traffic passed the Southeast Roanoke house.
A group of relatives and neighborhood friends stood in the street for much of the day, disapproving of the attention the scene was getting.
Patricia Leftwich's neighbor Tony Sheppard had tried to help get the family out of the house. He stood in his yard Sunday shaking his head.
"It was just one of those things where nothing went like it should've," he said.
A red wagon, a rocking horse and other toys lay in the front yard - reminders of the things that often brought the siblings together.
"These kids took care of each other," said Melody Booker, their Sunday school teacher at Belmont Baptist Church.
Clyde was known for his favorite toy: A yellow plastic school bus. He had a learning disability but always looked forward to class at Grandin Court Elementary School. He had a crush on his bus driver, his father said.
"Little Clyde always wanted my hats," Leftwich said. "I hang wallpaper. I took him with me once on an estimate, and he thought he was king that time."
Mark liked the Carolina Panthers, but his game was T-ball. And as the spring season approached, he was gathering bats and practicing his swing.
Patrick and Nancy were often inseparable. When he graduated from his younger sister's Bible study class, Patrick was timid, Booker said. He just didn't want to leave his sister.
The family struggled financially but had the most important thing - love, said their pastor, the Rev. Wayne Harrison.
In this Southeast neighborhood, it was not unusual to see Duncan pushing Nancy in a stroller while Patrick sat on her shoulders and Mark and Clyde followed along.
"Christine did an awful lot with the children," Harrison said. "If you saw one child out, you saw all of them out."
Duncan and her daughter, Patricia, had signed up to work in the church's nursery. During the blizzard this month, three people showed up for services. One of them was Duncan.
"I have cried since 7:30 this morning till the point that I'm just numb," Booker said.
Sunday, family gathered around Patricia and Mark Leftwich. They remembered the children - Nancy's golden ringlets that made her look like Goldilocks, the children's favorite meal of fish sticks and french fries.
"We need prayers," Mark Leftwich said, as he wept. "Please tell people we need their prayers."
Belmont Baptist Church is establishing a fund on behalf of Patricia Leftwich. Donations can be sent to the church at 825 Stewart Ave. S.E., Roanoke 24013.
A relative said the family also is looking for burial plots where the children and their grandmother can be close together.
Staff writer S.D. Harrington contributed to this story.
LENGTH: Long : 108 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. The Leftwich children - Patrick (from left), Clyde,by CNBMark and Nancy - pose for a 1994 Christmas photo. "These kids took
care of each other," their Sunday school teacher said. color
2. Mark Leftwich, 6, was already preparing for T-ball season.
3. Clyde Leftwich, 5, was known for his favorite toy: A yellow
plastic school bus. KEYWORDS: FATALITY