A rowhome fire in Gray's Ferry killed one little boy and left two of his brothers and his mother in critical condition Friday morning. A four-year-old sister who was also hospitalized, is the only one who escaped life-threatening injuries.
"I heard the kids in there screaming and I heard the girl screaming. She was on the back roof saying, 'My babies, my babies!'" said a neighbor named Frank who tried to get to the kids with a ladder. "The smoke was too much for me and I just fell down the ladder," he said.
Other neighbors jumped in and tried to help as well. One woman grabbed her water hose and tried to douse the flames.
"I tried to run in," said Sharefah Glenn, "and my neighbor was watering down the house. But the fire was coming out the door."
Desiree Johnson shot video with her cell phone.
"The flames were kicking. It was burning. You couldn't get through the door," Johnson said.
The fire started on the first floor of the home, which is in the 1500 block of South Corlies Street.
Two-year-old Sincere Pitkow did not survive. Eight-month-old Jeremiah and a third brother, three-year-old Tristen, are in critical condition. Jayla, 4, was alert and talking. Their mother, Nina, has second-degree burns. Her two oldest children were already at school when the fire started.
The house did have smoke detectors and investigators were working to figure out how the fire started.
