Wonder pays for funerals of children killed in fire

Singer and musician Stevie Wonder has arranged to pay the funeral expenses for five children who were killed in a house fire in Philadelphia.

Wonder was heartbroken after hearing about the blaze and wanted to do something to help the family, said his publicist, Ira Tucker.

“I don’t think he’s ever done anything like this before,” Tucker said. “It’s just good that something can be lifted from them.”

Wonder, 55, also hopes to visit with the families while he is in Philadelphia for the Live 8 concert on July 2.

“Stevie feels good about this,” Tucker said. “It’s been just a heart-wrenching thing.”

The June 12 blaze in the city’s Kensington neighbourhood killed three sisters, Summer Cooke, five; Samantha Bowers, four; and Sabrina Dickson, 22 months; and two of their cousins who lived nearby, Amber Johnson, three; and Reginald Ringgold, one.

The three sisters’ mother, Shannon Bowers, 21, and her boyfriend, Lester Cooke, 33, escaped by jumping from a second-floor window into a children’s paddling pool on the pavement.

Investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fire.