Baby Killed in Knoxville House Fire

Tucked away at a four-way stop in East Knoxville and down a hundred-yardlong driveway stood a house that few neighbors knew existed – until it was consumed Monday night in a ball of fire that killed a 23-month-old boy.

“You could hear the woman screaming about the baby in her house,” said Betty Collins, 68, who lives nearby on Skyline Drive. “All you could do was cry and pray.”

Neighbors along Skyline Drive watched flames 40-50-feet high shoot from the single-story house situated down a hill below the road.

Knoxville Fire Department Capt. D.J. Corcoran said authorities learned of flames in the house at about 11:40 p.m. When firefighters arrived at the home that housed six people, the fire already was shooting through the roof.

The mother of Eli Blaze Dellinger screamed her toddler was still inside the home, but firefighters were unable to enter the structure to rescue the boy, who was two weeks from his second birthday.

“Literally, it was like opening a furnace door,” Corcoran said.

Corcoran said the two adult sisters and one adult brother living in the home escaped safely. Two other children, ages 4 and 5, also made it out of the home.

Firefighters at 1:12 a.m. found Eli’s body. KFD Assistant Chief Danny Beeler said the child was found lying in a bed in the rear portion of the home.

The mother of two of the children – including Eli – and the two surviving children were taken to a hospital for treatment of mild smoke inhalation, Corcoran said. Their names weren’t immediately available Tuesday.

Beeler said the family indicated there were smoke detectors in the home, but fire investigators were still piecing the whole picture together.

“We understand they woke up to it; the house was full of smoke,” Corcoran said. “We talked to them a little last night, but they were in shock and we’ll talk to them again later. There’s no indication it was foul play or anything other than an accident.”

Beeler said fire investigators on Tuesday afternoon were digging through the debris to determine the cause of the fire. The home, he said, had electrical service.

“Based on what the family said, we expect it to be caused in the front of the house,” he said.

David Collins, 39, whose son attends Spring Hill Elementary School with one of the children who lived in the burned home, said he first thought the sounds of the blaze were coming from a television.

“I looked out and the whole sky was lit up,” he said. “It looked like a big fire ball; you couldn’t even tell it was a house.”

Betty Turner, 80, who also lives along Skyline Drive, said the 5-year-old girl sent to a hospital called her “Granny” during their talks at the bus stop.

“She’s a darn good mama,” Turner said of Eli’s mother. “She walks that child to the bus every day.”

The children’s mother came to Turner’s house during the fire draped only in a blanket.

“She was just screaming and crying, saying they couldn’t find her little boy,” Turner said.