Aurora house fire kills 2 children, injures 7 other people

AURORA — Two children are dead and four other children remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday after an overnight house fire in Aurora, authorities said.

Nine people were inside a house in the 2800 block of South Oakland Circle that went up in flames at about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Dawn Small with Aurora Fire Rescue.

All nine were taken to area hospitals, and two of the children, a 1-year-old and a 9-year-old, died at the hospital, Small said.

One other child and two adults were treated at a hospital and released, officials said.

The four children who were in critical condition as of Thursday morning were still in the hospital.

Many neighborhood residents were just waking up to the news Thursday morning, and several said they were heartbroken to see what happened to the family. They said the children in the family could be seen playing in the front yard and along the street most days.

Neighbor Nan Page-Stevens said her dog woke her up at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday as her street was being flooded with emergency lights.

She said she knew the family in passing, and couldn’t imagine what they might be going through.

“No matter the situation, no one deserves to go through something so unspeakable like this, especially with the babies,” Page-Stevens said of the two children who died.

Page-Stevens was consoling the mother, Tiffany Lee, who was at the house Thursday morning.

The house did not appear damaged from the front, but Page-Stevens said the homes in the neighborhood were designed with the bedrooms in the back, so any damage there wouldn’t be able to be seen from the street.

Multiple fire rescue trucks responded to the fire due to the large number of people who were inside.

Small said Aurora Fire Rescue was still still investigating the cause of the fire.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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