2 kids killed, mom jumps out of window to escape Upper Darby fire
UPPER DARBY, Pa. (CBS) -- The town fire chief summed it up: Tuesday is a very sad day for Upper Darby.
Neighbors are now trying to make sense of a devastating, fast-moving house fire that killed two 5-year-old twin girls and left their mother injured this morning.
Crews were called to the home on the 300 block of Margate Road just after 4 a.m.
When they arrived, there was heavy fire on the second floor, Fire Chief Derrick Sawyer said. The children were in a second-floor bedroom.
"They made a real valiant effort to try to get to these children to no avail," Sawyer said. "My heart goes out to the family my heart goes out to our members and their families because of their injuries."
The children's mother had to jump from a second-floor window to escape the flames. She is now hospitalized with multiple leg fractures.
Two firefighters were injured in the blaze while trying to reach the children.
The home where the fire broke out was boarded up Tuesday and a makeshift memorial was set up, including a sign that read: "R.I.P. twins."
Neighbors in Upper Darby say the twins were 5-year-old girls.
CBS News Philadelphia spoke with a neighbor who said he would see the children out often and he still can't believe what happened.
"Sad. I make it a personal thing of mine to watch over everybody on this street, and I saw the kids playing outside. It's starting to get nicer out," Kyle Miller said. "They just had a barbecue out not too long ago, a couple of days ago, this weekend. They were out there with their family. It's real sad to see that the kids have passed. That's something that everybody holds tight is their children, real tight."
Before fire crews arrived, neighbor Reginald Spotwood says he was outside and heard the twin girls cry for help from the second floor, so he rushed.
"That was my initial reaction to jump in, as a father would, go in to try to save the kids," Spotwood said. "But I couldn't. There was too much smoke going on, too much. It was too much."
The fire was put out in under 30 minutes, Sawyer said.
There was minor damage to neighboring homes on the block.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation, but officials believe it appears to be accidental.
Sawyer said a working smoke alarm was detected in the basement of the home.
