WACO, Texas — Two children were killed Friday in an early morning house fire, Waco Fire Chief Bobby Tatum said.
The fire was reported just after 1:30 a.m. at a home in the 1200 block of Webster Ave. Firefighters were called by someone outside the house, officials said. Tatum said they found heavy smoke and fire coming from the front of the home.
Tatum said firefighters found 4-year-old Anthony Cole Puenta and his 2-year-old sister, Rachel Rose Aleman, inside. One of the children was found in a bathroom and the other in a bathroom closet, according to Tatum. Both of the children were unresponsive and taken to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead, Tatum said.
Tatum said the children's grandmother, another adult family member and an 11-year-old girl were outside the house when firefighters arrived. They were not injured.
Waco Independent School District spokesman Kyle DeBeer said Friday afternoon the 11-year-old is a student at West Avenue Elementary School. He issued the following statement on behalf of the district:
"Our principal has been in contact with the family, and we have delivered clothes and school supplies to the campus for that student. We are also working with the Faith Alliance, a group of about 40 local congregations that support our schools in a variety of ways, to identify additional resources for the family. This is a devastating tragedy, and our hearts break knowing that one of our families lost two young children last night. We hope that the support that we can offer will provide some small measure of comfort at this terribly difficult time."
Tatum said the Red Cross would provide the family financial assistance and counseling. He also said counseling would be available for the firefighters.
"A lot of firefighters have children themselves," Tatum said. "Our attention is going to be providing counseling for those firefighters that were affected by the fire."
A GoFundMe account has also been set up to help the family.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.