Philadelphia fire kills at least 12, including 8 children

PHILADELPHIA — Fire tore through a duplex home early Wednesday in Philadelphia, killing 12 people, including eight children, fire officials said. At least two people were sent to hospitals, and officials warned the toll could grow as firefighters searched the brick rowhome, where 26 people had been staying.

The four smoke alarms in the building, which was public housing, do not appear to have been working, fire officials said. The blaze’s cause was not determined, but officials shaken by the death toll — apparently the highest in a single fire in the city in at least a century — vowed to get to the bottom of it.

“I knew some of those kids — I used to see them playing on the corner,” said Dannie McGuire, 34, fighting back tears as she and Martin Burgert, 35, stood in the doorway of a home around the corner.

“I can’t picture how more people couldn’t get out — jumping out a window,” she said.

Officials did not release the names or ages of those killed in the blaze, which started before 6:30 a.m. As many as eight residents appear to have been able to escape the fire.

Family members on Facebook have identified two of the victims as sisters Rosalee McDonald, 33, and Virginia Thomas, 30. The siblings each had multiple children but it’s unclear if all of them were home at the time of the fire or how many of them died. Messages were left with several people who said they knew or were related to the victims.

Fire officials had initially said 13 people died in the fire, seven of them children, but totals were updated Wednesday evening. Eight children and four adults were found dead, officials said.

The fire burned in a residential area of the Fairmount neighborhood, northwest of downtown and home to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and its famous steps from the film “Rocky.”

Streets around the scene of the fire remained blocked off Wednesday evening. Moments after the last firetruck pulled away from the front of the house, several neighbors quietly approached the foot of the block and left candles and flowers.