Neighbors Remember Three Killed In House Fire

by Breanna Fuss, Reporter
December 23, 2012 4:39 PM


Two adults remain in the hospital Sunday night after a house fire in north Sioux Falls that left one teen, and two children dead.

16-year-old Michael Hensley, 12-year-old Savannah Coon and 6-year-old Olivia Coon were all killed in the fire.

Fire crews found their bodies in a single room on the second story of the home.

KDLT went back to the home today to speak to neighbors to learn more about who the kids were.

Three angels now watch over the burned and blackened home on the corner of Brookings and North Main Avenue.

One for each life lost: 16-year-old Michael Hensley, 12-year-old Savannah Coon and 6-year-old Olivia Coon.

They seem to be watching over the two-story house where the three children called home for such a short period of time.
     
"They just moved in like a month ago,” said Sucely Donis, a neighbor.

10-year-old Sucely Donis and her 8-year-old brother Nelson live next door.

They said they never met Michael or Savannah, but they knew the youngest, Olivia.

“How would you describe her,” asked Breanna Fuss.

"Fun, exciting and happy,” said Sucely Donis.

Sucely said they went to Hawthorne Elementary School together.

"We waited for the bus with her, and sometimes I helped her carry her backpack up to her house,” said Sucely Donis.

Perhaps too young to understand what exactly happened, they do know that their friend is gone and isn’t coming back.

"(We) like played all around in the snow. And we made like a huge pile over there and we started jumping in it,” said Nelson Donis, a neighbor.

As their friend’s house sits in silence, the little ones are left with broken hearts.    

"We are sorry for the loss of your children,” said Sucely Donis.

As more stuffed animals are placed at the scene, it seems as if the whole community grieves with them.

The identities and condition of the two adults are still unknown.

And the cause of the fire is still under investigation at this time.