Welcome to Haunted Road, a production of I Heart Radio and Grim and Mild from Erin

Manky.

Listener discretion is advised.

Early in the morning of December 20th 1964, flames blazed against the dark in sky erupting

from a fire in a home in Palmira, New York.

The house burned so intensely that the city's fire chief told a contemporary newspaper,

when we got there the flames were shooting into the middle of the street.

It took 75 firefighters from four towns over three hours to quell the blaze.

When the smoke cleared, they recovered the bodies of 26 year old Ruth Anna Breeden and

her six children.

Marian Eddie Edward age eight, Dennis Wayne age six, Susan Pauline age five, Mitchell

Eugene age four, Sharon Faith age three, and Samuel David age two.

Eddie and Samuel's bodies were found under a mattress.

Their bodies so dehydrated from the intense flames that rescuers reportedly mistook the

corpses for dolls.

Ruth Anna and her other four children had died together, the woman having attempted

to shield the children from the flames.

The fire had so completely destroyed the building that the family was all found in the basement,

the floor having collapsed in on itself.

While the charred remains of the house were torn down, the basement and foundation remained

intact.

Today, the site of what has been described as the worst fire tragedy in Wayne County's

...