Sheriff’s official: 4 children are killed in house fire

Four children died with their pets in a house fire in a small town in east central Wisconsin, authorities said.

Sparta Area Fire District Chief Mike Arnold said crews responded shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday to a report of a house fire with people trapped upstairs in the Town of Little Falls.

Captain Jeffrey Spencer of the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office said the four victims were children. The sheriff’s office and fire department have not released the names or ages of the victims.

The home was fully engulfed in flames by the time firefighters and sheriff’s deputies arrived, officials said. Firefighters tried to get inside to rescue them, but were driven back by the intense heat, smoke and fire, Arnold said. Arnold said one person who escaped to a neighboring property to call 911 had tried without success to alert others to the fire.