January 20, 1961

6 Children flee as fire razes home

       The six children of Mr. and Mrs. Harold McClain fled their farm home west of here last night when fire destroyed the two-story frame structure.  As the children, alone at the time, were going upstairs to bed they saw flames.  Gregory, 13, the oldest, herded the youngsters outside, carrying a 6-year-old sister who had been sleeping in a downstairs room.

         The father, an employee of the Allison Division of General Motors, Indianapolis, was away bowling and the mother had gone shopping for groceries.  While the children were huddled, coatless, in the 10-above temperature, Gregory ran across fields to a neighbor’s home to report the fire and get help.  The children, Jill, 5, Patricia, 6, Crystal, 8, Deborah, 10, Timothy, 12, and Gregory are now staying with the Rev. and Mrs. W. E. McGinnis, their grandparents in Greenwood.  (Reprinted with permission from the Indianapolis News)
 
    

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