GLOUCESTER, Va.Jan 17 2013 AP — A woman and her three grandchildren died Wednesday in an early morning house fire in central Gloucester County, according to the Gloucester County Sheriff's Office.
Authorities said the grandmother and two other adults who lived in the home initially escaped the fire, but that the grandmother re-entered the house to try to save the children, whose ages were 6 months, 2 years and 7 years. The grandmother's age was not immediately available. The names of the victims have not been released.Gloucester County Assistant Fire Chief C.W. Miller said the children were on the second floor of the home when firefighters arrived, finding the home engulfed in flames.
"Everybody did what they could do to try to get access to them but with the house fully involved you couldn't do a whole lot at that point. We checked every possible access we could to get to them and we just couldn't get in there, it just wasn't safe to put people in there at that point," Miller said.The sheriff's office says the two other adults who escaped the fire were related to the victims, but it wasn't immediately clear what their relationship is. They were taken to a nearby hospital and don't have life-threatening injuries.
The sheriff's office and the Virginia State Police are investigating the cause and origin of the fire.
