The Boston Herald
ORANGE, Mass. — Traumatized neighbors of a home where a little girl and her friend who was sleeping over perished Saturday afternoon in a fast-moving blaze described a scene of horror, heartache — and a heroic father thwarted by fire.
Several neighbors said the father grabbed an aluminum ladder from his flooring van to try to reach his daughter and another Orange girl until he himself was badly burned.
“It’s really hard just knowing they were trapped in there,” said Jeff Burgess, 34, whose two daughters knew the victims.
Burgess, who lives around the corner, had just returned from the store when, he said, “I heard blood-curdling screams.”
A woman who had called 911 alerted him two little girls were trapped inside. Burgess said he didn’t see any flames until the father broke a window to try to save the girls.
“When the window broke, the flames shot up,” he said. “We were just standing here, helpless. It was awful.”
Burgess said the girl who was sleeping over was “bubbly, happy. She was over our house all the time.”
“It happened so fast,” said Richard Snow, 51, who lives across the street. “I saw smoke coming out from the front windows. I didn’t see the flames until I ran around back, and then it was done. The whole thing just went up.”
He said the father was yelling, “‘My baby girl! I can’t get her out, she’s trapped!’ He was burned pretty bad.”
Snow said he and his fiancee are close friends with the father and his girlfriend, who moved in little more than two years ago. Snow said the couple managed to escape with a teenage boy, and were taken away in ambulances.
“Awesome people,” Snow said. “They’d give you the shirts off their backs. ... It’s horrible. The only thing we can do is stick together and help out the best we can.”
The father could not be reached for comment. The girls’ names were being withheld by officials until they could be positively identified in autopsies. The visiting child’s family left a note on their door yesterday that read, “Thank you for reaching out to our family.” Reached by phone, a woman at the house ?declined comment.
School Superintendent Tari N. Thomas informed parents via an automated message last night that the girls attended first and second grade at the Fisher Hill Elementary School, where grief counselors will be on hand today.
First responders rescued two dogs and a cat. Investigators spent hours yesterday combing the house. Jennifer Mieth, spokeswoman for state fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey, said the girls were the first Bay State children to die this year in fatal fires that have already claimed 16 adults. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
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