Girls Laid to Rest; Mom Still Hospitalized

It was a heart wrenching morning for all who went to the visitation and funeral services for 5-year-old Alexandra Slack and her 3 year old twin sisters, Claudia and Colletta. The three died in the July 4th fire at their twin home on broadway in Gloucester City. Three firefighters who died trying to rescue the girls were buried this week. Many residents of the small city felt compelled to be at those and this Mass of the Angels service today.

The girls' father escaped the blaze without injury. The mother remained hospitalized Thursday as the town prepared to bury her children.

Sixteen firefighters went in to look for them; only 13 made it out alive when the building collapsed. The others--Thomas G. Stewart III, James Sylvester and John D. West--were bid farewell at emotional firefighters' funerals earlier this week.

Relatives and neighbors said the girls were inseparable and full of life, whether selling lemonade on the sidewalk, playing with their prized new slip-n-slide or dressing up in oversized sombreros.

By Thursday, investigators from local and county agencies and the federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms had not announced a cause of the fire, which broke out around 1:30 a.m. in the working class community of 11,500 directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia.

Inspectors finished their work at the fire scene Saturday, but continued to interview witnesses.

The girls' mother, Katia "Tia" Williamson, 24, was in critical condition Thursday morning at Crozer Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa.

Frank Slack, 27, a plumber and refrigeration worker, had moved with his longtime girlfriend and their three daughters to Gloucester City from South Philadelphia last year in the hope of giving the children more room to play and a better education.

Relatives said the girls' paternal grandmother, Mary Ann Slack, treasured the trio so much that she got their names tattooed on her legs.

Article continues below

---

advertisement

---

Author: 6 ABC-AP