Duluth fire victims to be buried in Albany

By Megan Matteucci and Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Three sisters who died in a Duluth house fire will be buried in Albany.

Gwinnett fire investigators are still trying to figure out what started the fire that killed 12-year-old Amirra Wingfield, 17-year-old Dairien Wingfield and 19-year-old LaToya Jackson.

They died of smoke inhalation, Ted Bailey, chief investigator for the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's Office, said Sunday.

A funeral is scheduled for this week at the Rhema World International Ministries in Albany, church officials said. The girls were born in southwest Georgia.

An initial investigation indicates that the fire started in a bedroom below the kitchen that's on the main level of the family's townhouse in Duluth, Gwinnett County Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Capt. Tommy Rutledge said Monday.

The girls were trapped on the third floor. One of them was able to call 911 before they became trapped in a closet. She stayed on the phone with dispatchers as firefighters arrived, Rutledge said.

Their mother also was in the townhouse when the fire started, but she escaped unharmed by jumping off the back balcony, Rutledge said.

Firefighters were able to pull out the badly burned girls, but the two younger sisters died at Gwinnett Medical Center that night. Jackson passed away late Saturday evening.

Their father, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Rufus Wingfield, arrived back from Afghanistan Sunday. He was serving his second tour in the Middle East, the girls' grandmother, Emma Wingfield said Monday.

The grandmother, who lives in Albany, said she could not speak about the girls until contacting their parents.

-- Staff writer Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this article.