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Boys found dead in Cle Elum house fire

CLE ELUM, Wash. — Two boys died in a house fire in Cle Elum on Friday.

Cle Elum Police Chief Scott Ferguson, who arrived at the scene before firefighters, said he and several officers were able “to get into the house by 15 to 20 feet but were turned back due to heavy smoke.”

The fire started just after noon. The boys mother tried to go into the house to rescue her sons. Ferguson and neighbors said the mother was frantic.

“I heard her in the back of their house screaming, ‘My kids are in the house’,” said neighbor Kaye Townsend.

Neighbors say the boys who died in the fire were 4 year old Hunter and 3 year old Skylar Burnett.

Their mother, Noel Wood, was burned. She was in stable condition at Kittitas Valley Hospital in Ellensburg Friday night. Police say her injuries are not life-threatening.

Although they said they have no reason to think the fire was suspicious, investigators are treating the burned house as a crime scene.

Neighbors are devastated.  They say the boys came to their houses last night “trick or treating”.

“I seen them playing in the yard all the time. They were really happy little boys,” Townsend said. “ It’s really heartbreaking. I feel so sorry for them”.

The community suffered a tragedy on Wednesday as well when a 7 year-old boy died after he suffocated in a sand pile.

“We got some healing to do,” Ferguson said.