Apartment Fire Kills Woman, 2 Children

Fire spread through a Garland apartment building before dawn Sunday, killing a mother and daughter and another girl, and forcing some residents to escape by jumping from their second-floor balconies. The fire at the Village of Eastgate Apartments in this Dallas suburb destroyed eight units in the complex and left 16 people homeless. Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which a resident said started in a sofa in a main hallway of the two-story building. The dead were identified as Dorothy Chism, 42; her 9-year-old daughter, Danyell Powell; and 11-year-old Creola Thompson. Chism eventually escaped by jumping from the balcony but died later at a hospital from extensive burns.