11/14/09: Niagara Falls Mother & Daughter Die in Overnight Fire

BY NICKI MAYO
“I just can’t believe she’s gone. Her or her daughter,” said Shameka Crittenden with tears swelling in her eyes.
Crittenden’s cousin Tajanua Smith and her daughter Kheyarra Williams died Saturday morning in an overnight fire that ripped through a Deuveux neighborhood house.
“She was a pretty girl. She always smiled. Always joyful. She was a fantastic mother!” Crittenden added reminiscing on her lost family members.
“If she wasn’t with her cousins or her kids she wasn’t anywhere,” said Crittenden breaking into tears.
Tajuana Smith was 34 and a single mother of three. Her oldest child 16-year-old Kayshaid Mulkey was away in Buffalo during the fire. Smith’s daughters, 13-year old Kashmir and 10-year old Kheyarra Williams were both home asleep with their mother. Niagara Falls investigators say the fire broke out around 1:16 in the 700-block of Monteagle Street.
Family members say Kheyarra was the first to know the front of the house was on fire. She woke up her sister Khasmir who told the youngest to go and wake up their mother as the teen went for help.
“I saw the little one on the porch and she said ‘my sister’s in there,’ explained Johnny Newton. The Monteagle Street neighbor lives two houses down from Smith’s family.
Newton said he heard Kashmir pounding at his door around 1am and rushed to try and save Tajuana and Kheyarra.
“My neighbor Johnny Parks came out and he started screaming and then we both went in,” said Newton.
Both Johnny’s tore into the house and fell to their knees, crawling through the black smoke which eventually forced them out.
“That’s when we started breaking the windows. I threw a bat through the window just to let some of the smoke out. That was it. I couldn’t save them,” he lamented.
Fire investigators say the house has $40,000 in damages plus another 20,000 for the family’s personal loss. The house is being considered a total loss, but that’s nothing compared to the loss this Niagara Falls community is feeling after losing Tajuana and little Kheyarra. Some have already started bringing stuffed animals and balloons to a tree for a makeshift memorial. It sits just feet from where the mother and daughter took their last breaths.
“I got close to them, they played with my daughter,” said Newton.
The night of the fire, Newton says his daughter Shauna was supposed to sleep over with Kheyarra and Khasmir. He says Tajuana and Kheyarra were part of a greater Monteagle Street Family.
“I wish I could have saved them,” he added remorsefully.