Five grandchildren of an Arizona fire department employee were killed in a blaze while their dad left them home alone to go Christmas shopping, authorities said.
Four siblings – boys aged 2, 5 and 13 and their 4-year-old sister — died alongside an 11-year-old male relative who was visiting them in their duplex Saturday evening, the Bullhead City Police Department said.
“There were no survivors,” police said of the fire that appears to have started in the downstairs foyer and traveled up the stairs, trapping all five kids in the upstairs bedroom.
“The children’s father reported to investigators that he was gone for approximately 2.5 hours to buy groceries and Christmas gifts,” police said.
Neither the dad nor the kids were identified. It was not immediately clear how the fifth child was related.
However, all five were grandchildren of a Bullhead City Fire Department employee, police said, without identifying the staffer nor elaborating on their role.
Because of that link, the local department will not be involved in the ongoing investigation. Police will instead be assisted by the Lake Havasu City Fire Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF). An exact cause of the fire has yet to be revealed.
“Our city is dealing with a horrific tragedy,” said Chief of Police Robert Trebes, stressing that investigators are “working tirelessly to get answers” to bring “closure” to the victims’ loved ones.
About a dozen neighbors saw the fire and desperately tried in vain to put the flames out, local Patrick O’Neal told CBS 5.
“We came around the corner and we saw the smoke coming up so we knew it was right here,” O’Neal recalled.
The group even broke windows trying to get into the home.
“We pulled the garage door open, there were guys pulling stuff out. The closer we got to the door there was smoke starting to come into the garage and choking people out,” he said.
They knew children lived in the duplex, but did not know if they were home, he added.
“We were screaming at the top of our lungs,” he said, saying they didn’t see or hear anything from the kids.
“There are many guys out here who would’ve gone into that fire if we’d have known there were children” trapped, O’Neal said.
When the fire department arrived on the scene the neighbors helped place an extension ladder to the upstairs bedroom, police said.