An arson fire killed three tenants early Saturday morning at an apartment building at 7th and State Street in Quincy.
42 year-old David Jones, 43 year-old Samuel Burton, and 55 year-old Linda Wilson lost their lives. Adams County Coroner Gary Hamilton says preliminary autopsy results show all three victims died of smoke inhalation.
Now the families of those victims are trying to pick up the pieces.
Victims Linda Wilson and her longtime boyfriend Sam Burton were asleep in their apartment here at 7th and State when their lives were cut short.
Family members say Linda was very giving, loving and always making jokes. Sam was the love of her life. He was a brick laborer and a quiet guy, but was grateful for the love he'd found with Linda.
Friday was Linda's birthday, so she took the day off from the Quincy Senior and Family Resource Center, where she worked overnight. Linda's sister, Laura Burton, who's also Sam's sister-in-law, says had it not been her birthday, Linda would have been at work at the time of the fire. But even then, Sam would have been at home all alone.
Linda Burton said, "To think you go out and celebrate and come back and not wake up."
She said, "They were very close, they relied on each other and helped each other out through difficult times. If you could find a blessing, they're together because they would have a hard time carrying on without each other."
"What was it like to get that call?
Burton said, "It's like you're in a dream and you never wake up. It's more and more of a nightmare when you find out it was arson."
"They would have had a hard time living without each other...but the worst part is they didn't have to. It's easier to accept if it had been an accident. But it's ten times harder to know they didn't have to die."
Laura Burton and her husband never expected to lose a sister and a brother all in one night.
But even with that nightmare, she says it could have been even worse. Another family member lived here in the same building, but was fortunately not at home that night.
Funeral arrangements for the three fire victims have been set.
Visitation for Linda Wilson will be Tuesday night from four to seven at the Zehender Robinson Stormer Cookson Funeral Home in Quincy.
The funeral will be Wednesday at eleven at the funeral home.
A memorial service for Sam Burton will be included with Wilson's service. Funeral services for Sam Burton will be in Dodge City, Kansas.
Visitation for David Jones will be tomorrow night from six to eight at the Hudson-Rimer Funeral Chapel in Edina. The funeral will be ten a-m Wednesday at Hudson-Rimer Funeral Chapel.
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