Twin baby boys were killed in a blaze that engulfed a home in South Los Angeles. According to officials working on the case, a Christmas tree might have played a role in the fire.
The home, located in the Green Meadows neighborhood in Los Angeles, was reportedly on fire at around 9:05 p.m. on Tuesday evening. Neighbors and firefighters used hammers and axes, as well as a sledgehammer, in an attempt to remove the security bars off of the windows to save the toddlers. The two boys are two years old and their father was still listed in critical condition, Los Angeles Times reported.
A neighbor said that it was a horrible scene. The neighbor was standing outside his home while talking to a friend when a woman was heard screaming. He then got to the street and saw flames coming from a home. The neighbor went to the home and saw the mother of the twin boys, 24-year-old Charlotte Fortson, and her four-year-old daughter. The mother was said to be repeatedly screaming, "My babies are inside the house!" Fortson is also pregnant with her fourth baby.
The father of the boys was out of the home when the flames started to grow larger. However, he crawled back inside in order to save his twin children. Firefighters eventually retrieved the children and one of them gave CPR to one of the twin boys. Another firefighter placed the boy on a gurney and rushed him to an ambulance.
The fire officials said on Wednesday that the property lacked mandatory smoke alarms and fire sprinklers. Five families lived at the property but no one was home at the time except the twin children and their parents. KTLA 5 reported that a Christmas tree might have been the root cause of the fire.
The family involved in the fire has not yet released a statement. A vigil was held outside the home on Wednesday.
