5 children killed in devastating fire in East St. Louis

Five siblings died after a fire broke out in their apartment in East St. Louis, Ill., While they were sleeping.

Authorities responded to reports of the fire around 3 a.m. Friday and located two children who had already died in a bedroom and three others passed out in the kitchen, two of whom were pronounced dead when taken to outside, and one of them was pronounced dead. in a hospital, according to East St. Louis Deputy Fire Chief George McClellan.

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“The guys take it pretty hard,” McClellan told The Associated Press of other firefighters.

The children between the ages of two and nine died just before their mother, Sabrina Dunigan, celebrated her birthday, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr. identified the victims as 9-year-old Deonta Davis Jr.; 8-year-old twins Neveah Dunigan and Heaven Dunigan; Jabari Johnson, 4; and Roy-el Dunigan, 2.

“It’s an erasure,” Francine Moore, the children’s paternal great-grandmother, told the Post-Dispatch of the loss of her family. “By the grace of God [we] hold up. “

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The five children lived with their mother and two grandparents in the one-bedroom apartment that would have been converted into two living spaces, according to the Post-Dispatch.

The family moved into the apartment after escaping injuries from a fire in their old home earlier this year, the outlet reported.

Firefighters initially said no adults appeared to be inside the apartment when it caught fire, and Dunigan had only run errands to get home in the flames. McClellan said the children’s mother entered the building several times in an attempt to rescue them.

Authorities later said they were trying to determine whether the children’s grandparents Greg Dunigan and Vanicia Mosley were inside the apartment before the fire broke out, according to the Post-Dispatch .

Greg Dunigan told the outlet that he and his wife, who is blind, smelled smoke and jumped out of the second story window to escape the flames.

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Vanicia’s sister, Shontice Mosley, told the Post-Dispatch that “the fire was already too bad in the part where the children slept” outside the apartment for their grandparents to reach.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Seven other families were displaced by the blaze, but they were not at home when the blaze broke out, officials said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.