MANVILLE, N.J.-- The bodies of a young mother and her two small children were found in the charred remains of a Manville home that burned in a fast-moving fire overnight.
Eyewitness News is told the three perished in the blaze that broke out inside 210 South Fifth Avenue at around 11:15 p.m. last night. Investigators began removing their bodies from what was left of the two-story home just after after 6:30 a.m. this morning
Officials say the mother was in her early 20s and two of her three children were kindergarten students at the Westin Elementary School in Manville, according to neighbors.
Neighbors said the childrens' father and a neighbor rescued the man's two-year-old son, but they were prevented from re-entering the home as the flames and smoke engulfed it. Both father and son were taken to a hospital.
The cause of the fire was not known.
The family of five, two parents and three children, resided in one side of the multi-family house. A minivan sat in front of the house.
The landlord, George Kochis, who resides in the other side of the home, escaped unharmed. Kochis said he and a neighbor got a ladder and rescued another tenant and his girlfriend from above Kochis' side of the home.
Copyright 2007 by WABC-TV.
Republished with permission of WABC-TV.
