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DENNIS GARCIA Staff Writer A 1-year-old Long Branch boy was killed after a fire, believed to have been caused by a burning candle, swept through a Long Branch home Sunday morning. The family had just moved into the home that day and had scheduled to have the electicity turned on Monday. Detective Kenneth Sealey of the Robeson County Sheriff's Department said Stacey Lee McRae, 1, died after a fire broke out to the wood framed home located on Rural Paved Road 2216, about nine miles east of Lumberton. The fire started at about 1:30 a.m., according to Sealey. Four persons escaped the fire in cluding the child’s mother, Hazel McRae, and a friend, Tally McCollum. Also escaping were 5-month-old Reginald McRae, the mother’s other child, and Mrs. McRae’s nephew, Willie Shipman, 14. According to Sealey, both the mother, who carried the 5-month-old child out of the house, and McCollum thought the other had taken the baby from the home when the fire started. “There were some sleeping in the liv ing room and some sleeping in the front room when the fire started,’ Sealey said. “They all left the house and McCollum thought she had taken him (Stacey McRae) and she had thought McCollum had grabbed him. The child had been sleeping in the living room and the mother in the bedroom. When they realized it, they and some neighbors tried to get back into the house but it was way too hot. They couldn't get in.” Britts Volunteer Fire Department ar rived with mutual aid from the Smyrna and Allenton volunteer fire departments, according to Sealey. “When I got there, the fire was still burning and they were still attempting to put the fire out,’’ Sealey said. The body of the infant was discovered in a chair in the living room by a Robeson County Ambulance Service rescue worker. Sealey said there was no electricty in the house and that the family was using candles for light. The detective said it appears one of the candles ignited some thing flamable in the dining room, where the fire is believed to have started. “It apparently started on a table that was in the dining room because the din ing room table was completely destroyed, ’ Sealey said. ‘We believe that’s how it started but we're still in vestigating the incident. We'll continue to work on it.”’ Sealey said firefighters were able to save most of the home but the detective estimated the damage to be thousands of dollars. The survivors of the fire are staying with relatives,
Newspaper Details
Lumberton Robesonian
Lumberton, North Carolina, US
Tue, Apr 02, 1985
Page 8
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael B.
USA 04 Jul 2026
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