At 16, Chonna Campbell suddenly has bigger worries than hairstyles and boyfriends. One of many children who lost their only parent in an inferno at a poultry plant, she now frets about her little brother.
Tuesday's fire at the Imperial Food Products plant killed 25 people and injured at least 55. It was North Carolina's worst recorded industrial accident.Eighteen victims were women, many single mothers like Gail Campbell, 33, who left behind her teenage daughter and 5-year-old son, Tony.
"He's got until he gets to my age to think about all this and what happened and to try to understand it," Campbell told The News and Observer of Raleigh.
Most of the children who lost their only parent will move in with grandparents or other relatives. Others will be placed in foster homes.
Mary Alice Quick, 38, left behind daughters La'Ronda, 18, and Nakisha, 13, who will now live with her sister, Peggy Arnold, and a 12-year-old son, Martin, who will live with his grandmother.
"She knew if anything had ever happened to her, I would be there," Arnold said. "I love these kids as if they were my own. After all, I helped name them."
Children who lost one of two parents had no easier time.
James Webb's fiancee, Aquanetta Fairley, broke the news of his death to their 4-year-old daughter, Shawnta. "The hardest thing for me was to come home and tell my daughter she didn't have a father any more," she said.