Day Care Catches Fire, Children Evacuated To Safety

Tyler police and neighbors responded quickly when a fire broke out at Paula’s Daycare in the Victory Temple in the 1700 block of North Moore Avenue Wednesday afternoon.
With smoke billowing out of the church’s backdoors, two Tyler officers helped daycare personnel safely evacuate the 19 preschool-age children from the building.

Some of the children cried as the workers and residents from the neighborhood led the group to one of the church’s other buildings to get them out of the cold.

As the children passed Tyler firefighters arriving on the scene, some were frightened by the firefighters wearing face masks.

While the firefighters worked to extinguish the small fire, the children gathered at a window of an adjacent building watching the action. Their expressions showed concern and excitement at seeing all of the fire trucks.

Yvonne Atkins said she was at work at Boulter Middle School when she was called by day care workers and told her there was a fire.

“I just dropped everything and came running this way,” she said.

Atkins, the wife of the church’s pastor, said she was thankful to the police officers, the neighbors, the staff and the firefighters for their quick response.

“I’m not worried about the building, because it can be replaced. Those precious children are all that matter and everyone got out safe,” she said. Tyler fire investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.
By Kenneth Dean in The Tyler Morning Telegraph