FIRE KILLS MOTHER AND CHILDREN AT HOME

BALTIMORE, Oct. 16 - A mother and her five children were engulfed in flames
and killed early this morning in a house fire that neighbors said was set
by drug dealers who were seeking revenge.

The authorities did not determine the cause of the fire, which broke out at
2:30 a.m. But they said the same house in the same hardscrabble
neighborhood was firebombed earlier this month.

The mother, Angela Dawson, was known as a crusader, a tough and unyielding
neighborhood advocate who tried to stamp out drug trafficking in her patch
of inner-city East Baltimore.

Local thugs did not appreciate her efforts and had often threatened to
silence her, neighbors said.

"They said stuff like if she ever came out on the streets they were going
to kill her," a nearby resident, Marcus Trustty, 18, said.

Fire officials picked through the remains of the house and sent pieces of
evidence to a crime laboratory for analysis. A police dog trained to detect
accelerants was taken to the house. Several agents from the federal Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were on the scene.

"We haven't ruled anything out, so arson is something we're looking at," a
spokesman for the Fire Department, Michael Maybin, said. "Certainly with
six people perishing in the fire, we want to make sure we get to the bottom
of this investigation."

The five children killed were twins, Kevin and Keith Dawson, 8; Carnell
Dawson Jr. and Juan Ortiz, both 10; and LaWanda Ortiz, 14.

Mrs. Dawson's husband, Carnell Dawson Sr., narrowly escaped by jumping out
a second-floor window. He was hospitalized in critical condition, with
burns covering more than half his body.

Their three-story row house at 1401 East Preston Street, northeast of
downtown, is nothing more than a blackened shell. Not a pane of glass is
left. Eight-foot-high piles of debris were stacked outside. A melted
basketball. A crusty black sock. A children's bicycle with the seat burned
off, along with a Size 3 gym shoe, were among the items scattered on the
sidewalk.

"I didn't think they would go this far," said a woman who identified
herself as Alice, an aunt of the children. She shook her head and walked away.

The Dawsons lived on a corner, and Mrs. Dawson, 36, had repeatedly tried to
shoo away the numerous drug dealers who lingered in front of her house.

Neighbors said the traffickers responded with threats. The police offered
to protect the family, but the Dawsons declined.

On Oct. 3, at 3:51 a.m., someone threw two Molotov cocktails through the
kitchen window, according to a police report. The resulting fire burned a
set of curtains, but Mr. Dawson smelled the smoke, ran downstairs and
extinguished the fire.

The family boarded up the window. But Mrs. Dawson did not stop struggling
with the youths who loitered on the corner, sometimes until 3 a.m.

"She was a concerned mother, just like us all," a next-door neighbor,
Gerlena Jackson, said. "She stood up to them. She didn't want them around
her kids."

Firefighters found the bodies of Mrs. Dawson and her children after
fighting for an hour to bring the blaze under control, a spokesman for the
Fire Department, Kevin Cartwright, said. Neighbors said they were stunned
that the firefighters had even went into the house because the flames were
so intense.

People drove by the ruined house tonight with a pained look in their eyes.
Some stopped to rest teddy bears on the stoop.

A big card was left nearby, made by classmates of the children.

"R.I.P. Keith and Kevin," one message read. "Dawsons, even though I didn't
know ya'll I still got love for you," another said.

"I love you, Angel," a third said, using the name many in the neighborhood
called Mrs. Dawson.

It is a rough neighborhood. Many homes are boarded up, separated by empty
lots with tall, spiky weeds. Police cars seem to be routine here, circling
the blocks, one after another. Scattered glass is sprinkled everywhere.

Tonight a cold wind blew down East Preston Street, spreading the smell of
char. Several stray dogs gathered in front of the Dawson house. But on this
night, there were no drug dealers.