Investigators from the State Fire Marshal's office go over the site of a multi-fatality mobile home fire in Woodward, Okla., Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Officials say six people, including some children, are dead after a fire swept through the home. Fire Chief Todd Finley says one boy escaped the blaze early Thursday morning after a firefighter and a bystander were able to free him from a window. (Dawnita Fogleman/The Woodward News via AP)
March 03, 2021 - 2:44 PM
WOODWARD, Okla. - A fire tore through an Oklahoma home early Wednesday, killing six people, including several children, officials said.
One boy managed to escape the blaze after the first firefighter at the scene heard a voice from inside the home and managed to knock an air conditioner from a window with the help of a bystander, said Todd Finley, the fire chief in Woodward, a city of roughly 12,000 people about 125 miles (200 kilometres) northwest of Oklahoma City.
“The last report I have is that that child is going to make it," Finley said. “Unfortunately, we weren't able to save the six other people that were inside the house."
Finley declined to say how many children died in the fire, but he said the dead included a mix of kids and adults and that the state medical examiner's office would work to identify them.
Flames were shooting out the doors and windows of the home when firefighters arrived, and the heat from the blaze started melting firefighters' masks when they tried to enter, the chief said. He said he didn't know if the home had working smoke detectors and that the state fire marshal's office was trying to determine the cause of the blaze.
News from © The Associated Press, 2021