Family mourns the deaths of three members in house fire

An elderly couple and their disabled son died early Saturday after a massive house fire tore through their western Harris County home.

The blaze broke out around 2 a.m. at the family’s longtime home on Lookout Mountain. Smoke blanketed the entire street and consumed the second story of the home, leaving behind a burned-out shell looming over the quiet residential neighborhood.

Fire crews from Champions Emergency Services District battled the blaze but were unable to save the residents.

“My mother, father and brother all perished,” Monya Churchill said tearfully Sunday as she pulled up to the funeral home.

Robert Summerford, 79, and his wife, Frances, 83, both died in the front yard. The couple’s son, Larry Phillips, 61, died in the back of an ambulance, authorities said.

“Larry had been sick for a while,” Churchill said. “He was disabled, and my parents had been taking care of him for quite a while.”

Even before Saturday’s destruction, the Summerford family was all-too-familiar with tragedy.

One daughter died about two decades ago, and in 2004 another daughter died of cancer.

In the intervening years, the Summerfords had regularly left heartfelt notes on online obituary pages.

“I look forward to being a reunited with both of you in heaven,” their mother wrote in 2008.

“My heart is aching and I dream of you and the day we see each other again,” their father wrote the year before.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.