Fire critically injures family in Wheaton.(News)

0 Comments | Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL), March, 2000 | by Kazak, David R.

A predawn fire in Wheaton Thursday left a Vietnamese family of five injured, three of them critically, and stunned the tight community that knew them best. At Lowell School, where 9-year-old Hong Thi Diep attended classes, counselors were on hand - and will be again today - to comfort students coping with the news their classmate is critically wounded.

Wheaton Warrenville Unit District 200 spokeswoman Denie Young said concern was not limited to within the school's walls, as the entire District 200 community would also remain on hand to offer any future support for the refugee family that came to America nine years ago. At the People's Resource Center, Mary Ellen Durbin said the Diep family, especially matriarch Hoa Thi Diep, 54, has made a lasting...