Investigators probe cause of fire that killed Bridgeport mother, 3 children

CONNPOST STAFF REPORTS
Updated: 11/13/2009 01:18:30 PM EST

BRIDGEPORT -- A mother and her three children died early this morning in a fire that swept through their unit at the P.T. Barnum Apartments public housing complex in the city's West End.

The fire, which erupted shortly after 1 a.m., was confined largely to their third-floor apartment in Building 12 of the complex, off St. Stephens Road.

The four victims, according to friends, are Tiana Black, 23, the mother of a 5-year-old son, Nyshon Williams, and 4-year-old twin daughters, Nyajsia and Tyajsia Williams. Their identities, however, have yet to be officially confirmed.

Black is believed to have been a nursing student at Housatonic Community College.

The three-story building does not an exterior fire escape at the third floor. The mother's body, with her twins, was apparently found at the bottom of an interior stairwell in the two-story apartment, which can be entered from an outside stairwell. The body of the older child was found in an upstairs bedroom.

During a late-morning press conference at the fire scene, Fire Chief Brian Rooney said the structure conforms to the city's fire-safety code.

An employee of the Bridgeport Housing Authority, which owns and manages the Barnum Apartments, on the scene this morning said that the smoke detectors in the unit were checked earlier this week and appeared to be functioning.

The victims' cause of death was not announced. That will be determined by the office of chief state medical examiner.

Both state and local fire and police investigators are at the fire scene, which was confined to Black's unit. There is no indication at this point about what caused the fire.

The public housing project was constructed in 1950. It consists of 18 three-story, 20-unit brick apartment buildings.