Seven Children Killed in Blaze

HENDERSON, N.C. — Seven children, ranging in age from 3 to 17, were killed today when flames from a wood burning stove roared up a stairwell and engulfed a bedroom, leaving their bodies huddled on the floor behind a bed.

The dead were four boys and three girls from different families who were staying in the house to keep warm during the current cold wave, officials said. They said a woman who was sleeping downstairs with her 3-year-old baby escaped. It was not immediately known if any of the dead children were hers.