Federal officials have denied benefits for the children of a Baltimore firefighter killed in a highly criticized training accident, saying city fire officials did not submit required paperwork.

Fire union officials say the department failed cadet Racheal Wilson when she was alive, and now after her death. Mayor Sheila Dixon says she will seek help from the state's congressional delegation to appeal the Justice Department decision.

Cadet Racheal Wilson died in a 2007 training exercise after becoming trapped in a West Baltimore rowhouse that her instructors set on fire. The city stopped using vacant rowhouses for training following her death and within months Dixon appointed a new fire chief.

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Information from: The (Baltimore) Sun, http://www.baltimoresun.com