Teen recalls fatal fire

Three family members died in Petersburg house fire

BY DAVID RESS

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

PETERSBURG Choking smoke, thicker than fog, filled the darkness. An aunt screamed that she felt flames beneath her feet.

Two children stopped at the window of the old frame house on Petersburg's rundown Harrison Street, the flames behind them.

"I was scared to jump. I didn't want to jump. Then my mom gave me my baby brother. . . . she gave me my brother for a reason . . . so I jumped," said Yorel Hazer, 13, recalling the predawn fire Friday that took the lives of her brother Mark, 6, sister Na'Tyah, 11, and cousin John Hazer, 16.

Hoping to protect her 6-month-old brother, Damon, Yorel twisted as she fell, and her shoulder took the impact of leaping two stories to the ground. "He was crying. I was crying."

Yorel shared her harrowing experience yesterday for the first time with the public at the Red Cross of Petersburg. She was joined by her cousin Michael Hazer, 14.

Behind Yorel, her mother, Diamond Hazer, had turned back toward the flames, trying to fight her way to the other children. Also behind her, Michael hoped the hammering of his fists on his brother John's door would awaken him. He said he was scared because he hadn't seen his younger cousins.

"I couldn't see anything," Michael said yesterday. "I feel like if I saw Mark, I could have picked him up. He was very light."

The six children of sisters Diamond and Hope Hazer made a close-knit extended family in the old frame house at 454 Harrison St. They lived there for more than a year.

Mark was always hanging out with Michael's big brother John. Mark looked up to John, a wrestler and member of the Petersburg High School band, who had dreams of college and a better life.

Na'Tyah loved Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Her favorite color was pink. She and her sister talked about all kinds of things, and Yorel liked helping her with homework.

"It might not have been the best house. But we had good times in it," Yorel said.

Diamond and Hope Hazer tried -- not always successfully -- to make two small paychecks from a local linen and uniform-rental company stretch to cover $600-a-month rent and all the other bills that children and parents rack up. In the weeks before the fire, their electricity had been cut off. They tried to keep the place warm with kerosene heaters. They lit the house with candles.

Mark and Na'Tyah shared a back room where family members say the windows were painted shut. The family said they tried to open them soon after moving into the house in the summer of 2005 but couldn't. They didn't think about it much; there were plenty of other repairs needed, relatives say.

"Our rent man never fixed it up. . . . We had to do everything to try to fix it up," Michael recalled.

Landlord Donatus Amaram did not return three phone calls from The Times-Dispatch yesterday for comment.

Last year, Amaram sued twice to evict the family. In court filings, he said the Hazer sisters hadn't paid the full rent owed for April, May, July and August. He has said he called off a request to the Petersburg Sheriff's Office to evict them after an upset Diamond Hazer told him she had a new baby and nowhere to go.

In interviews over the weekend, Amaram said he didn't know the electricity had been cut off, adding that paying the electric bill was the tenants' responsibility. He also said he installed at least four smoke detectors in the home. A housing inspector, investigating a 2005 complaint that the landlord's former tenant had operated an illegal boarding house in the building, said he recalled seeing detectors.

Petersburg fire officials, who are still investigating the fire, said the alarms apparently didn't work. They don't know why.

Now, out-of-town relatives are trying to help the Hazer sisters get back on their feet. There are three funerals to arrange, and clothes to buy for the children.

Diamond Hazer is still at VCU Medical Center with severe burns to her face and arms. Family members say she had her first skin graft Tuesday. The baby, Damon, is still being treated for smoke inhalation and is doing well.

The family doesn't know what will happen next.

"They didn't have much before. They have nothing now," said Talaya Rogers, a cousin who grew up with Hope and Diamond Hazer in Washington.

The family has set up an account, called the Hazer Fund, at Bank of America, for anyone who wants to help. Financial donations are accepted at any branch. Donations of clothing and other items can be made at the First Baptist Church at 236 Harrison St. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays.

Her shoulder still in a sling, Yorel said she's grateful for the support that has already poured from the community. She brushed off talk that she is a hero. "I just feel like that's what a big sister would do."

Still, with all her clothing, shoes and even her favorite Tweety-Bird toys gone, Yorel said she knows what she wants most:

"For me, a home."

Contact staff writer David Ress at dress @timesdispatch.com or (804) 649-6051.