Children killed in Ohio trailer fire laid to rest
September 19, 2013
TIFFIN, Ohio — A mother who lost her five children and boyfriend in a mobile-home fire described the youngsters with a single word: smiley, a minister said Thursday.
Anna Angel’s four daughters ages 6, 5, 4, and 3 were laid to rest in a single casket following their funeral Thursday. Her youngest child was to be buried with his father later Thursday, following a second funeral in Sandusky.
All six died early Sunday morning when the fire swept through their mobile home in Tiffin. Angel was working at her fast-food job when the fire broke out.
The children — Tiara Angel, 6; Stormie Huey, 5; Trinitie Huey, 4; Sunshine Huey, 3; and Domonic Fresch, 1 — all had special personalities and were always happy, said Pastor Mark Boedeker of First Lutheran Church, who officiated at the first funeral.
Boedeker said Angel recalled that her children were always smiling, Tiffin’s Advertiser-Tribune reported.
“I know that all five of them are joined in heaven hand-in-hand and are skipping and laughing and being smiley,” he told mourners.
Following the burial, many of the mourners drove 30 miles to Sandusky for the funeral of Domonic and his father, 25-year-old Timothy Fresch, who also died in the mobile home he shared with Angel and her children.
The deaths have shaken the rural community, about 50 miles southeast of Toledo.
Organizers of a fund to help Angel pay for the funerals and other expenses had raised about $16,000 for the family within two days of the fire.
Well-known rappers The Game and Drake pledged to donate another $22,500 after hearing about what happened.
An anonymous donor offered to give Angel a used car after it became known that the family did not have enough money for a car.
Neighbors said that Angel’s only transportation was her bicycle, and they said she was often seen riding with her children behind in a bike trailer for kids.