4 Kids Reportedly Die in House Fire Near NY-PA Border

ELMIRA, N.Y. (TheBlaze/AP) — Four children, ranging in age from about 5 to 15, were reportedly killed in a fire that swept through a two-story home on a tidy block in the riverside city of Elmira, near the Pennsylvania border.

Police wouldn't release the victims' names or confirm if they were related.

(Credit: Jason Whong/Elmira Star-Gazette)

Fire officials say the structure was engulfed in flames when they arrived Friday night and that four victims were found in the second floor of the home; they were rushed to a hospital but died. Neighbors say the four were children; police confirm children are among the dead.

Neighbor Glen Bolt, 72, tells the Elmira Star-Gazette he ran across the street when his wife saw flames pouring out of the home's windows and front door after 9 p.m.

“I looked out the door, seen fire coming out of the windows and the doorway, I called 911,” Bolt told the Gazette. “The next thing I know someone said there’s kids in there.”

“I ran across the street, and me and the neighbor there busted the windows out, hoping the kids would come through that window,” Bolt said. “But by that time the smoke had already got them.”

Witnesses said they saw CPR being performed on people removed from the house, the Gazette reports, and neighbors were seen hugging and crying on the street.

"[Firefighters] had some assistance from their neighbors," said Mark Cicora Jr., deputy director of operations for the Chemung County Office of Fire and Emergency Management, told the Gazette. "Search and rescue was being done simultaneously. Considering those two factors, it was a quick knockdown for them.”

The cause and circumstances of the fire are under investigation.

Here's raw video of the aftermath via the Star-Gazette:

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