BLAZE KILLS MOTHER, 3 CHILDREN; FOURTH CHILD HOSPITALIZED AFTER BEING TOSSED TO SAFETY

FRUITLAND, Mo. -- A mother and three of her children died when a fire swept through a second-story apartment in a small, frame house along U.S. 61 Monday.

A fourth child was taken to Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau after the mother managed to throw the boy out of a second-story window before she was overcome by smoke, authorities said.

Killed were Robin Muench, 24; her daughter, Angela, 5; and sons, Phillip, 2, and Nicholas, 1.

Joshua Muench, 4, who was thrown from the window, was listed in fair condition at the hospital.

The husband and father, Matthew Muench, was at work when the fire broke out.

A tearful Cape Girardeau County Coroner Mike Hurst said all four died of smoke inhalation in a bedroom of the apartment.

Hurst said he couldn't help but cry when he saw the bodies. "This is not an easy job," said Hurst. "It's hard to go out and tell a father that he has lost a wife and three children."

Muench returned home to find firefighters battling the blaze.

He sat on the ground outside the fire-charred house, crying and praying. Family members and friends gathered around him in stunned silence.

The fire apparently was started by a cigarette in the bedroom of the home, said fire investigator Butch Amann with the state fire marshal's office. He said the cigarette may have been dropped in bed or knocked out of an ashtray.

"We are calling the fire accidental," he said. The fire was confined largely to the bedroom, although the rest of the upstairs apartment experienced heavy smoke and water damage, Amann said.

The fire, in terms of fatalities, was the worst in Cape Girardeau County since three people died in March 1991 in a house fire in Cape Girardeau, authorities said.

"This is very tragic," said Cape Girardeau County Sheriff John Jordan, who responded to the scene along with a number of deputies and about 20 firefighters from the Fruitland, East County and North County fire departments.

Monday's fire was reported by relatives in the downstairs apartment. They phoned 911 at 9:05 a.m.

Two sheriff's deputies arrived on the scene first. They ran up the wooden, outside steps and kicked in the upstairs door in an effort to rescue the family trapped inside, but the intense smoke and flames forced them to retreat, the sheriff said.

Traffic was reduced to one lane on U.S. 61 in front of the house, which is about a half-mile north of the intersection with State Highway 177, as firefighters battled the blaze for more than an hour. The fire was extinguished by 10:15 a.m.