Firefighters continure to work on the scene of a house fire at 115 E. Clay Street in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Dan Marschka, AP)
vA Pennsylvania house fire claimed the lives of six people, including three young children, officials said Friday.
The death toll rose to six after Crystal Kuhns, 41, died Friday morning, and her daughter Mickey, 4, died Thursday evening. There were among five victims who belonged to the same family. According to a newspaper report, one woman who escaped the Fourth of July fire gave birth to a baby girl just hours later.
The other victims include David Kuhns, 51; Skylar Kuhns, 8; Shawn Kuhns, 6; and Jimmie Moore, 65. Another child, Kordell Kuhns, 2, remained in critical condition at Crozer Chester Medical Center outside Philadelphia.
According to Lancaster’s The Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, Moore’s pregnant daughter, Martha Moore, 22, fled the flames through a second story window and made it across the roof to a neighbors house. She gave birth to a baby girl just hours later through an emergency Caesarean section. Her daughter, Zaliah, weighed 4 pounds, 5 ounces.
Martha’s brother, Brock, said she did not find out that her father died until after she gave birth.
“How do I celebrate my baby with my dad dying?” Brock quoted her as saying. “He died on a day that he was recognized as a hero of our country.”
Fire officials said the fire started at about 3 a.m. Thursday in the kitchen of a three-story duplex in Lancaster, Pennsylvania after frozen potatoes were left unattended in the oven. Fourteen people of different families lived in the building, which did not have fire detectors.