2 Adults, 4 Children Killed in Weleetka House Fire

Staff and Wire Reports

WELEETKA, Oklahoma -- Six people have died in a house fire in Weleetka in Okfuskee County, according to the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal's Office.

The Weleetka Fire Department was called to the fire at about 4:15 a.m. Monday in the 400 block of South Delaware.

Medical Examiner's office spokeswoman Cherokee Ballard said two adults and four children were killed in the early morning blaze. Ballard said the children's ages range from one to 11.

The victims have been identified as Latoya Bush and Renee Buck, as well as Kurstyn Pelegrin, 9, and 10-year-old Tristen Pelegrin. Barbara, 2, and 3-year-old James also died in the fire.

Firefighters say one child, 8-year-old Tavis Southern, Barbara and James' brother, escaped the home and alerted neighbors. They said the boy smelled smoke and tried to wake the others but was unable to do so.

"He did hear smoke detectors, so there was smoke detection in the home," said Linda Heims with the State Fire Marshals Office.

Officials said it appeared an electrical fire that started in the living room was to blame and the only working smoke alarm was in the boy's room.

Sheril Murillo lost her sister, Renee Buck, her daughter, Latoya Bush, and two grandchildren, Tristen and Kurystn Pelegrin.

"They were the most wonderful and greatest people I could ever know in my whole life," Murillo said.

The Southern children's mother, Crystal Kelough, 33, had lived for about a year with Buck, who had medical problems and recently was discharged from a hospital. In return, Buck would watch Kelough's children while Kelough worked.

"I'm fortunate to have one (child) left," Kelough said hours after the fire as she huddled with distraught relatives near the still-smoldering house.

Bush and her children recently moved into the brick-and-stucco bungalow-style home, a half-block down a tree-lined street from the small town's public school, where Superintendent Dan Parrish said a ministerial alliance came Monday and counselors would be available to students Tuesday.

Across the street from the charred house, Renee Buck's ex-husband, Jack, couldn't stop looking at what was left.

"I just mowed the yard for her yesterday," he said. "I don't feel like talking right now. It's going bananas."

One of Renee Buck's daughters, Lindsey Clanton, sat in her car nearby chewing her fingernails.

"She opened her heart and her home to anybody," Clanton said of her mother. "That's why there's so many people in the house.

Weleetka is about 70 miles south of Tulsa in east-central Oklahoma. The local sheriff is related to five of the victims through marriage.

"We're all a tight-knit family in Weleetka. In a town where the population is less than 800, everybody knows everybody," said neighbor Richard Abrams, who knew Buck since 1981.

Weleetka is the same town where, two summers ago, two local girls were found shot dead along a rural road. Investigators said two months ago they had made little progress in finding their killers. In March 2009, about half of the city's Main Street burned down in a fire as well.

People in Weleetka say they've been more supportive of each other since this run of bad luck began. And Sheril Murillo said she'll rely on that support.

"This is all of our family, the whole town is our family," she said. "Everyone will be affected by it."