Memphis Fire Department said three adults and six children died in an early morning house fire Monday.
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Fire officials said four adults and three children died at the scene.
She called her daughter’s boyfriend at the hospital with the one surviving child, telling him, “Hold Cameron’s hand until I get there”.
It took about 15 minutes for firefighters to put out the fire, which didn’t appear to cause much damage to the home’s structure.
“I’ve never seen firemen cry, but they were bawling like babies when they brought the children out”, the family’s neighbor, Firid Shoundra Hampton, told USA Today.
Officials are trying to determine the cause of the fire.
Per the Commercial Appeal, the city’s fire director, Gina Sweat, confirmed the deaths at a press conference and said one child is still in bad shape at a local hospital. ‘We sincerely pray for this family and for the loved ones of this family’. It was not immediately clear if those inside attempted to escape the blaze and smoke but were impeded by metal bars on the home’s windows and security doors, Sweat said. “We’ve all lived over there for 40 years and we are just devastated”.
“It’s a very sad day”, Mr Strickland said.
Sweat went to the site early Monday and spoke with firefighters shocked by the loss of life.
Sweat said most of the victims died of smoke inhalation, but there were also some burn victims.
“This is the most tragic fire incident in Memphis since the 1920s”, Sweat said. “We are all in mourning”.
It is with a heavy heart I have to inform you several of our students passed away in a house fire overnight.
The fire only burned 25 percent of the home.
Investigators say they’re still working to learn where the fire started, or if the home had a working smoke detector. He added they used to have neighbourhood parties and were a close-knit family. A red motorized children’s toy truck and a red bicycle with no wheels sat outside the home.
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Felecia Wallace, 34, said she has known the family since she was in elementary school.
