A father who lost three of his six children in a St. Paul house fire earlier this week pleaded with the community to teach their children to call 911 and escape their home in a fire.
Pa Cheng Vang, 25, spoke at a news conference at the Hmong 18 Council offices in St. Paul, surrounded by members of the Hmong community.
“I don’t want anyone else to face the same pain,” he said. “I never (want to) see any news … your family in the same condition as my family.”
Three of his children have now perished from injuries sustained in the early morning fire Wednesday that trapped his six children and wife in their Payne-Phalen home while he was at work.
Sivntxhi Vang, 5, was identified by the Ramsey County medical examiner’s office as the first child to die. She passed away from her injuries at Regions Hospital later on Wednesday. On Saturday morning, Vang said two other children, Ntshiab Si Vang, 5 (and Sivntxhi’s twin), and Mauj Tshos Ntuj, 4, a son, had also died.
After the news conference, Vang’s aunt, Yong Vang, said another son, Mauj Cagtxuj, 18 months, was not expected to survive. However, she said, there were encouraging signs that the other two children and mother may recover from their injuries.
“The ache, the pain, the agony the community is feeling cannot compare to what the father is going through,” she said, noting that it was difficult to be at the hospital the night before. “To go from one room to another to another to hold his children and to hear that ‘this one is not going to make it’ and to hear that ‘we’re going to have to pull the plug on this one.'”
Every room in one children’s ward at the hospital was occupied by Vang children when she was there Friday night, she said, including two who had passed who remained in their beds. “To see them there is heart-wrenching. And I look at my nephew and he is able to stand and he is able to talk and to smile at times, and I admire his strength because I don’t know if I could do that.”
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter spoke at the news conference while noting that he knew the couple and their children because Vang’s wife, Ker Lor, had previously worked as an intern in his office.
“There are things you just can’t put words to,” he said about visiting the children in the hospital the past few days and also seeing Vang there.
“I wasn’t sure how you were standing up in that moment. How you were even able to breathe in that moment,” he told Vang. “You have endured … our worst nightmare.”
The St. Paul Fire Department determined the fire on Arkwright Street near Maryland Avenue was accidental and the cause is under investigation, said Deputy Fire Chief Roy Mokosso.
Firefighters were notified at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. A 911 call was believed to have come from inside the house. There were working smoke detectors in the home, but the occupants were likely unable to escape because of the location of the fire on the first floor and because one adult was alone with six children, Mokosso said Wednesday.
An online fundraiser for the family can be found at gofundme.com/f/siv-ntshiab.
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