OAK HARBOR, Wash. — It is still hard for those who knew them to believe they are gone: 25-year-old Laura White, her 5-year-old daughter Ivylynn and 3-year-old son Imeril.
They were killed in a fire that raced through their small Oak Harbor home Sunday. KIRO 7 reached the woman who raised Laura and her two siblings in Arizona, after their father died 13 years ago.
"I'm devastated," April Darmody said. "I cannot put into words how I feel. To me, it is just surreal."
Darmody says her niece was brilliant, that she earned an associate’s degree in just six months. Then she joined the Navy where she met her future husband.
"She and Alex were very happy together," Darmody said. "They loved the children. The children were their life ... ."
Fire investigators were back at the scene when we arrived Tuesday afternoon. They tell us they think they know where the fire started but not yet how it started.
"So at this point, you are feeling like what happened here was an accident?" Oak Harbor fire Chief Ray Merrill was asked.
"An accident," he replied. "We've done a lot of testing already to rule out what we consider to be obvious arson cases."
Merrill said they have searched for evidence of something that could have ignited the flames and found nothing.
"We're really leaning toward this as an accidental fire," he added.
Darmody said she is comforted knowing nothing sinister happened to White and her young children. But she feels for White's husband.
"To have his entire family taken away like this," Darmody said. "It's just, it's devastating."
On Monday, the Island County sheriff said the family did not have electrical power. On Tuesday, he said it had been determined they did have power after all.
KIRO 7 will let you know when they release a cause for the fire.