Home Alone Is No Place to Be

SHEREE WILLIAMS AND HER HUSBAND LEROY LYONS came home to a scene of unimaginable horror. While they were away for 45 minutes, all seven of their children, left unattended, had perished in a swift, smoky blaze that gutted their two-story house on Detroit's east side. Iron burglar bars on the windows had prevented the youngsters, ranging in age from seven months to nine years, from escaping. In New York City two children, ages seven and five, died when a fire broke out in the basement of an unlicensed day-care center whose owner had stepped out for a few minutes just before the flames started. The rash of deaths underscores once more the extent to which an increasing number of parents, through economic hardship or simple irresponsibility, are unable or unwilling to get reliable child care. In many cases, including these two, the social service agencies empowered to prevent such disasters do not react until it's too late. In Detroit the police were conducting an investigation into whether the parents should be charged with neglect or involuntary manslaughter. (See related story on page 46.)