Mom dies saving 3 kids from house fire
GREENSBORO, Ala. — A west Alabama woman died in a house fire early Monday after helping save her three children escape the blaze, authorities said.
Melissa Rabon, 29, of Greensboro died in a fire that tore through her family’s mobile home in Hale County — about 40 miles south of Tuscaloosa.
The woman and her 12-year-old son helped two younger boys escape the structure before she was overcome in the fire, officials have said. All Rabon’s children survived. They are 12, 7 and 2 years old.
“The mother had gone back in to extinguish the flames,” Russell Weeden, the county’s EMA Director told WBMA-TV. “She went back in the bathroom to get a bowl of water to try and toss on the fire and that’s where she was found.”
The woman’s mother, Mentha Rabon, told the television station that her daughter celebrated her birthday on July 9 and she’s still coming to terms with her loss.
“I guess later on it will hit me when I can’t see or talk to her. The hardest part is that she left her children so young,” Rabon told WVTM-TV.
The three children lost everything in the fire, Rabon said. Hale County emergency officials have set up funds at People’s Bank of Greensboro and The Citizens Bank to help cover funeral expenses and care for the boys.
