BOSTIC, N.C. — Investigators are working to determine what sparked a fire that claimed the lives of two young children in a home.
Rutherford County Fire Marshal Frankie Hamrick said two children, ages 2 and 3, were inside the home when a passerby saw smoke on Friday morning, WHNS reported.
Firefighters who arrived on the scene found the children alone in a back bedroom with no other people in the house, WSPA reported. The fire appears to have started in the living room, Hamrick told WSPA.
Four fire departments responded to the scene. The first crews who arrived pulled the young children from the home and began doing CPR, WHNS reported.
“They come running out with a baby in their hands, throw it on the ground and start doing CPR and chest compressions, then they come out with another baby, throw them on the ground with chest compressions, CPR, and then later on I ask them how the babies doing, and they said the babies died,” Ronald Malton, a neighbor, told WSPA.
The children were taken by ambulance to a hospital where they died, Hamrick told WHNS.
Hamrick told WHNS that it appears the fire began near a couch in the living room, but the exact cause remains under investigation. The front of the house was severely damaged and there is smoke damage throughout the house.
The fire remains under investigation. The Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office told WHNS that charges could be filed in the case but did not specify what they might be.