'Saddest Thing Ever': Neighbor Recalls Deadly Southwest Philadelphia House Fire That Killed 2 Children, Grandmother
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two young children and their grandmother were the victims of a deadly house fire Friday night in Southwest Philadelphia. Relatives identified the woman as Nassira Harper.
As a fire tore through a corner home in Southwest Philly on Friday night, neighbors tried to get a family trapped inside to safety.
"Somebody kicked the door in to tell her, her house was burning," neighbor Fatama Dorley said. "And he couldn't do much after that because the whole house was in flames."
Cellphone video from the Citizen app captured the chaos as firefighters responded to the home on Bonnaffon Street, near Greenway Avenue, around 6:30 p.m. on Friday.
According to authorities, firefighters found three people in a second-floor bedroom -- a 1-year-old boy, a 4-year-old boy and their 40-year-old grandmother.
Fire officials say they did not survive.
"Devastating," Dorley said. "That's the saddest thing ever in this life for children to die."
Firefighters returned to the scene on Saturday as the fire marshal searched the home.
Dorley has only lived on the block for a year.
The sight and smell of charred debris and boarded up windows are becoming all too familiar.
"This is the second house fire on this block in a couple of months," Dorley said. "Big the same way."
There is no word yet on what caused this latest tragedy.
