The Brooksville Journal

Two Negro Children and Grandmother Die In Fire
In one of the most tragic disasters in Hernando county's history, two tiny negro children were burned to death and their grandmother died several hours later at the local hospital from severe burns received when their frame dwelling at the McDonald Corp. Mine was consumed by flames at 8:30 Wednesday night.

Dead are the two tiny children, a boy, George Richard Willis, Jr., age 2 years; a girl, Carrie Delois Willis, one-year-old; and the grandmother, Eliza Lawson.

The grandfather of the children, Andrew Lawson, was badly burned about the hands and legs as he attempted to save them from the flaming structure. The parents of the children had left them with the grandparents and were out of town at the time of the disaster.

The Brooksville Fire Dept. was called to the scene at 8:30 P. M. and fought the flames until 12:35 A. M. but the dwelling was a complete loss and nothing was saved of the belongings of the two families living in the structure owned by the rock mining company.

The only supply of water to fight the flames was one-half mile from the dwelling and the booster tanks of the truck had to be utilized. The truck was reloaded five times during the four-hour fight against the flames.

How It Happened

According to the report of the Fire Dept., the grandmother was attempting to start a fire in a wood heater. She reached for a can of coal oil to help start the wood burning, but mistakenly picked up a can of gasoline. When she threw the gasoline on the fire, the stove exploded engulfing her, the children, and the building in flames.