H. Dempsey McArthur, 48, laborer, died attempting to save Kathleen, 7, Betty Jo, 4, Ola Mary, 2, and Harlan Kelly, Jr., 1, from burning, Vidalia, Georgia, May 5, 1955. The four Kelly children were sleeping in the rear bedroom of a one-story, two-apartment dwelling while their parents were away. At his home 100 feet away McArthur was recovering from internal injuries sustained in an automobile accident eight days earlier. His daughter noticed smoke at the rear of the Kelly dwelling. Running to the front porch of the Kelly home, she pushed open the door of the adjoining apartment and found the room filled with dense smoke. Calling toward the McArthur home for help but assuming that her father could not render aid, she then summoned a man from the next dwelling 500 feet away. The man ran to the Kelly house and twice entered the adjoining apartment, each time being forced to return to the porch for air. McArthur then arrived and was told that the smoke was too dense to penetrate. When he insisted that the children must be saved, the man tried to force open the warped front door of the Kelly apartment. Turning to ask for help, he saw McArthur disappear into the adjoining apartment and called to him to come back. He heard movements inside the dwelling, followed within 30 seconds by a sound like that of a falling body, and then a faint call for help. Receiving no response to his calls to McArthur, the man then broke the front window of the Kelly apartment. Dense smoke issued from the window as he and McArthur’s daughter reached through it, and flames forced them to withdraw to safety. Flames then burst through the roof and in seconds much of the interior of the dwelling was aflame. Firemen arrived and extinguished the flames. McArthur and the four Kelly children perished in the fire, which almost completely destroyed the dwelling. 43478-4034
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