The Region - News from May 11, 1987

Susan Bunker tearfully sifted through the soot, looking for her tiny daughter’s stuffed animals. Family and friends also tried to salvage a few things from the blackened house in Orange that only hours earlier had been home to Bunker’s family and six developmentally disabled men. Bunker’s sister, Michelle La Bar, escaped from the blazing house after dragging a 42-year-old resident--who didn’t know the fire was dangerous--out by a belt loop on his pants. La Bar’s 7-year-old daughter Stacy was helped out by one of the other residents. Fire swept through the single-story board-and-care home in the 900 block of East Glendale Avenue. Two of the six developmentally disabled residents were away from the home, visiting families for the Mother’s Day weekend, and none of the remaining four was injured. Bunker and her husband, Jason, are houseparents at the home.