Neighbors, Friends Build Makeshift Memorial For Marshall-Shadeland Fire Victims
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- A small, makeshift memorial of stuffed animals and flowers sat outside a Marshall-Shadeland home Monday evening, hours after a fast-moving fire ripped through the duplex, killing two children.
The boys lived in the Sorrell Street home with their mother and brothers.
The boys who died are identified as 7-year-old Dylan Taylor and his 12-year-old brother, Nicholas.
Jane Griffiths, who lives near the Taylors, told KDKA-TV's Ralph Iannotti, "This has devastated our neighborhood. A single mother, struggling; she goes to our church, my grandkids are devastated."
"Me and a couple of guys were actually down there. The fire got so intense, we couldn't do nothing. We tried to save those kids, but we couldn't get all the way in there," Coley Davis, who attempted to get into the burning house, said.
The boys' mother, 38-year-old Jennifer Taylor, jumped out of a second floor window to safety with her 6-year-old son, Josh.
An older boy, 16-year-old Raymond, also managed to escape the inferno.
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Firefighters battled the four-alarm fire in searing heat.
The cause and origin of the blaze remain undetermined.
"I cannot believe how the house went up this fast; and the firemen, God bless them all," Griffiths said. "They did a wonderful job, they were here within minutes."