Ryan Denham and Bob Holliday

rdenham@pantagraph.com | bholliday@pantagraph.com

GIBSON CITY - Counselors and clergy were at Gibson City schools Wednesday as students mourned two eighth-grade girls who were killed in a fire Tuesday morning during an overnight sleepover. | Photo gallery

Madisyn Moore, 13, and Shanna Radakovich, 14, both students at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Middle School, were staying at Madisyn's mother's house at 614 E. 11th St. when the fire was reported around 4:45 a.m. They were found unresponsive in the basement by firefighters and taken to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead just before 6 a.m.

Madisyn Moore

The girls died from smoke inhalation, Ford County Coroner Douglas Wallace said after autopsies were performed Wednesday.

There was no school Tuesday because of Veterans Day, but counselors and clergy were on hand Wednesday to help students and staff members cope with what happened.

"Both always had a smile on their face whenever you'd see them in the hallway," said middle school Principal Michael D. Bleich.

School staff on Wednesday set up rolls of paper that students could use to record their memories of Madisyn and Shanna, said GCMS Superintendent Chuck Aubry.

"Sometimes it's easier to write it than say it," said Aubry.

Bleich said the written remembrances would be offered to the families of the two girls.

Shanna Radakovich

Smoke detectors woke Lisa Strebeck, Madisyn's mother, and Strebeck's boyfriend, John Schmitt, in a second-floor bedroom, and they were able to escape, Gibson City Police Chief Steve Cushman said Tuesday.

Schmitt "tried very boldly to get back in" as police arrived, but the fire blocked the only stairs into the basement and a window on the other side of the home was too small for access, Cushman said.

Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze and found the two unresponsive girls in separate rooms in the basement, one near a window. There was one bedroom in the basement, but the girls were not found in that room, said Wallace.

The girls were taken to Gibson Area Hospital, where they were both pronounced dead just before 6 a.m., Wallace said. He said Wednesday that they died of "carbon monoxide intoxication due to inhalation of smoke and soot," or smoke inhalation.

The girls were remembered by neighbors and educators Tuesday as popular honor-roll students who played on the volleyball team. Madisyn attended Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley schools all along, and Shanna started there in fall of 2007, officials said.

Memorial tributes to Madisyn may be made to the GCMS Middle School volleyball program, according to 13-year-old's obituary as provided to The Pantagraph.

"They will be deeply missed by the GCMS Middle School staff and students," the district said in a statement.

Started near boiler

Strebeck, who works at home as a hairstylist, and Schmitt received treatment at the hospital but were not seriously injured.

The fire apparently started with a mechanical failure in the home's boiler, which is near the basement stairs on the home's east side, Cushman said. That's where the heaviest flame damage was reported, he said.

The cause of the fire appeared to be accidental but was officially undetermined as investigators looked at two possible locations near the boiler that could have been the ignition site, he said.

The home's interior sustained heavy smoke damage and some flame damage, but the exterior did not appear to be badly damaged. It was unclear if the home was inhabitable Tuesday night.

Madisyn lived at the house with Strebeck and Schmitt. Shanna lived in Gibson City with her mother, Cheryl Radakovich, Cushman said.

Community reaction

Reporters and TV cameras arrived in front of the home by noon Tuesday as word spread through Central Illinois.

The Rev. John Koonce of Gibson City Pentecostal Church lives with his family across the street from where the fire took place. He said he held a prayer session in his home Tuesday morning after hearing what had happened.

"We can have a biblical understanding of death … but it still shakes you," said Koonce. "When it strikes 13- or 14-year-olds - that's where it gets you. Their lives had just begun."

Beth Koonce, John's daughter, who is a group manager at Alco Discount Store in Gibson City, said she remembers Madisyn coming into the store with Strebeck and that Madisyn was popular with a lot of friends.

Linda Livingston, who lives one home to the east of Strebeck's at 620 E. 11th Ave., said she saw and smelled smoke but didn't see flames. She said she was relieved the fire did not spread to her home a few dozen feet away because she uses oxygen tanks for medical purposes and they are stored on the west side of her home.

Madisyn's funeral arrangements are being handled by Lamb Funeral Home, Gibson City, and Shanna's by Fred C. Dames Funeral Home, Joliet, Wallace said.

Doris Benter and Sharon K. Wolfe contributed to this report.