Midnight fire outbreak kills mother, seven children while asleep

Fire outbreak in the night hours of Monday killed a mother and her seven children, who were said to be between the ages of two to 14 years. According to the police and firefighters, the inferno caught them unaware while they were asleep in their residence in northern France.

The outburst of inferno was said to have occurred minutes after midnight in the family home in the town of Charly-sur-Marne, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) east of Paris.

The husband of the woman, and father of three of the 7 children, was said to have suffered severe burnt and was urgently taken to a hospital.

Local prosecutor, Julien Morino-Ros, was said to have revealed that the mother and her seven children died from asphyxiation. Morino-Ros added that the fire outbreak may have been caused by a malfunctioning clothes dryer on the ground floor of the house.

The children were identified to include five girls and two boys. Four of the children are from the mother’s former relationship.

The prosecutor was gathered to have said that father was battling to put out the fire, as the children and their mother ran to the second floor of the house to escape the thick flames, which unfortunately, became a death trap.

Neighbours of the deceased were said to have called the fire department to report the blaze just before 1:00 am (0000 GMT). Local authorities disclosed that 80 firefighters were called to the scene, adding that the fire was extinguished after several hours.

It disclosed that firefighters were having trouble getting ladders to the top windows of the house which is nestled in a narrow street in the centre of the village of 2,600 inhabitants, as black smoke filled the house. The prosecutor also said that electric window shutters of the house were blocked because of a power outage, which further hampered the rescue operation.

Channels TV, AFP