2 Kids From Minnesota Killed In Ohio House Fire
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Two Minnesota parents are traveling to Ohio after getting unimaginable news. Both of their kids were killed while visiting family.
Kathryn, 9, and Aaron, 12, died in a house fire. They were visiting their aunt and decided to stay an extra night.
At their aunt's home in Columbus, Ohio, it appears a space heater in a basement started the fire.
This photo was taken at Magic Mountain in Ohio Monday. Hours later the smiling faces would be the source of many tears.
The St. Paul siblings were visiting their aunt when the home they all slept in burst into flames Tuesday morning.
The children's aunt made it out through the back door. So did her son, who says flames started near his space heater.
But the children who were in the front of the house would remain trapped.
A friend of the children's aunt says she is beyond shaken.
"She's absolutely devastated, in a state of shock," Amy Pfalzraf said. "She couldn't get in to the children or her two dogs in time."
Soon, the children's parents back in Minnesota got the news. Their mother's best friend says they've been surrounding her with love.
The children's parents are separated. Their mother is flying to Ohio now, while their father is driving.
"There are no words to describe the pain and anguish that this situation brings to my heart and soul," Brian Foster, speaking on the phone while driving to Ohio, said.
The St. Paul father says the family had planned to go camping together in July, but now will be planning their funerals.
"I just would like everyone to know that those kids were adored, loved and cherished by everyone they knew and everyone they came across," he said.
Friends are truly rallying around those parents now. If you want help pay for funeral expenses, two GoFundMe pages have been set up here and here.