This screen shot from KMOV-TV shows damage to an East St. Louis, Ill. apartment from a fire on Friday, Aug. 6, 2021. (KMOV-TV via AP)
Five children under the age of 10-years-old have died as a result from an apartment fire in southwestern Illinois. Fire crews were dispatched to the building in Saint Louis early Friday morning, where four children found inside were pronounced dead.
A fifth child was rushed to the hospital, but was pronounced dead upon arrival.
“It’s a nine-year-old to two-year-old and it’s kids and their perspective is the fact that they are blameless in this,” expressed East St. Louis Assistant Fire Chief George McClellan. “They’re just they’re just kids. and it’s it’s it’s tough. it’s tough.”
The blaze reportedly sparked after the children were left home alone. Their mother left to pick up another adult from work and returned to find the home up in flames.
Kenneth Jennings, right, helps hold crime scene tape as a hearse carrying the remains of children leaves the scene of an East St. Louis apartment fire. (Robert Cohen/St. Louis Post-Dispatch via AP)
“I started hearing a lot of noise. I went outside and saw people running around, police running around trying to get in,” one neighbor explained. “I was hurt, still hurt.”
A local coroner identified the victims, with ages ranging from two to nine-years-old, while the mother’s name has not been released. According to fire officials, the mother attempted to run inside and rescue her children, but was unsuccessful.
“The guys are taking it pretty hard,” McClellan mentioned. “I mean, we have a probie who this is his first fire.”
Meanwhile, officials report the blaze displaced seven other families and investigators would continue to look into what caused the fire.
Source: One America News Network
