Maryland blaze claims eight lives

PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland: Eight members of a family were found dead on Monday in a house in the town of Princess Anne, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, after possibly being overcome by carbon monoxide.
As of late Monday, no official cause of death was released for any of the eight: A man identified as Rodney Todd and his seven children. But people in the community said they understood that the deaths may have been caused by carbon monoxide from a generator used to provide electricity in the family home.
Police Chief Scott Keller said that “power was off in the house” and that the generator was out of fuel when the eight were found “all in sleeping positions,” suggesting that they had been overcome as they slept.
Police said the children were ages 6 to 16. They were five girls and two boys, said Stephanie Wells, Todd’s supervisor at his food-service job. Neighbors said Todd was divorced.
Todd worked under Wells at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, which is in Princess Anne, a town of about 3,300, about a dozen miles southwest of Salisbury.