5 Dead in Kentucky Blaze: 4 Children and Father
Five people are dead and one is left injured after a fire broke out during the early morning hours in Kentucky.
The fire struck a Pike County house just after 2:30 a.m., according to reports, killing four children and 1 adult. A second adult was taken to the hospital with injuries; no information was released on the condition of the victim.
The blaze was one of the worst to hit the area for a while, according to officials.
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"It's probably been the worst we've had in this area in a long, long time," Kentucky State Police Trooper Tony Watts said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Fire fighters were still working to cool the house where the bodies were located. It is unclear at this point what may have ignited the fire.
"We're still doing the overhaul and the cooling of the structure to get in there and do that," Darrell Compton, chief of the Shelby Valley Volunteer Fire Department, told AP.
Watts and Pike County Coroner Russell Roberts confirmed the number of deaths. Four young children, ages 5, 4, 2, and 6 months, and their father, were killed, according to NBC news.
"I can't remember a whole family perishing in a fire in my lifetime," County Judge-Executive spokesman Brandon Roberts said. "It's just, 'Oh God.'"
A second fire broke out six hours away in Conyers, Georgia on Tuesday night, killing three children and an infant, according to NBC.
"When the officers arrived, the duplex was fully involved in fire," Police Maj. Mike Waters told the news station. "They were told there might be children upstairs trapped in the fire. When they tried to rush up the stairs with their fire extinguishers, they were met with flames."
