Four children have tragically died after their apartment building on East Alston Avenue caught on fire on Wednesday afternoon.
According to Memphis Fire Department officials, the fire started at around 3 pm. Firefighters rushed to the apartment complex and found the four children inside a back bedroom.
Their grandfather said that the kids were only 1, 3, 4 and 5, adding that the family had just celebrated the 3-year-old’s birthday one day before the tragic incident.
Police said that they have detained the children’s father, who was supposed to be watching over them. According to reports, he told a witness that he went out to run a quick errand down the street.
Another witness told WREG that she and her partner were driving down the street when they saw the smoke coming from the building.
They pulled over and tried to call 911 but couldn’t get through.
The witness claimed that she reached out to the mother of the children via Facebook to let her know what was happening but by the time firefighters arrived, it was already too late.
According to reports, fifty firefighters arrived nearly half an hour later and found the four children inside a back bedroom.
Speaking to WREG, the children’s great-grandmother said: “I’m so hurt and sad that all of them had to go. And this was a sad way for them to go. Four children. I can’t understand it.
“But God, He knows best.”
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