"The Fire" -- a preface to Don Ray's book about his lifelong pursuit of fathers and father figures.

A fire that continues to burn in my consciousness.

 When I was six, I remember my parents' reaction to this newspaper story. For whatever reason, it had hit close to home for both of them.

It was a story about a fire that broke out in the Los Angeles home of a woman and her six children. I remember how it described how five of the children either jumped out windows or climbed down the stairs to safety.