The home had security bars on its doors and windows, which might have hampered attempts to escape the flames.
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Futrell was grandmother to the children who died.
Three children were taken to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in “extremely critical condition”.
Cameron previously played football for the Memphis Raider organization. We are praying for the family. It took about 15 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the blaze.
“They could have been simply overcome by smoke and never had an opportunity to escape”, she said.
The fire only burned 25 percent of the home.
A majority of the victims died of smoke inhalation, according to MFD.
Seven of the 10 family members died in the fire.
According to KHBQ-TV, firefighters rushed to the house around 1:30 a.m. after someone inside the house called 911.
“This is the most tragic fire incident in Memphis since the 1920s”, Sweat said.
Sweat said nothing in training could prepare for the heartbreaking event.
Retuers reported all of the adults and three of the children were pronounced dead at the single-story wooden house in South Memphis, while two more children died after being transported to local hospitals, city officials said.
“Our whole city is in mourning for the loss of much of one family”, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said.
Cooke says grief counselors will be provided for the personnel who handled the fire.
“We do provide our firefighters with critical stress debriefing”, Cooke said.
The Memphis Fire Association posted on its Facebook page: “Please think about this family and the firefighters and police officers who responded to the scene”.
It is not immediately clear what the case of the deadly blaze was, but Sweat said that it appeared to have started in the living room. “We did find a smoke detector on the scene, but due to the damage we were unable to determine if it worked or not”.
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The names of the victims were not released during the briefing at the Fire Museum of Memphis, pending notification of next-of-kin.
