Mother Charged After 6 Children Die in Fire

A woman has been charged with negligent manslaughter in the deaths of her six children who died in a fire while home alone, authorities said.

Fire broke out in the small wooden home early Saturday, apparently sparked by a wood-burning heater made from a 55-gallon drum, investigators said.

Six children, aged 1 to 9, died at the home in rural northern Mississippi near Independence.

Their mother, Christie Rene Greenwood, 24, told police she was next door playing cards. She was being held in the Tate County Jail and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of each of the six counts of negligent manslaughter.