WINNIPEG – Four boys died in a fire at a home southeast of Kane, Man., early Wednesday despite their parents’ rescue efforts.
Mother Doralee Eberhardt, who was home while her husband Jake Froese and 18-year-old son worked, got the three youngest children out of the house when the fire broke out at about midnight, a neighbour told Global News Wednesday — but four older boys didn’t get out of the upper floor of the home.
The four boys who perished are Henry, 9, Danny, 10, Timmy, 12, and Bobby, 15.
The father and oldest son tried to mount a rescue using a ladder when they got home, but by that point flames were coming out of the windows, the neighbour said.
“The father did attempt and has been brought to hospital for smoke inhalation,” Rosenort fire Chief Bernard Schellenberg said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
The fire had engulfed the two-storey home by the time the volunteer fire department arrived, Schellenberg said. The other children are at neighbours’ homes and the parents were taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation, he said.
READ MORE: How you can help Froese family who lost 4 boys in Kane, Manitoba fire
The volunteer fire department in Lowe Farm, Man., was called at about 12:15 a.m., officials said. By the time firefighters arrived, the two-storey home was engulfed in flames and they were unable to enter the burning home, Schellenberg said.
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Kane is a hamlet about 70 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg in the rural municipality of Morris.
“The home is gone,” said RM of Morris Reeve Ralph Groening. “Absolutely nothing left.”
RCMP and the Office of the Fire Commissioner are investigating to determine the cause of the fire.
Residents and rural municipality government officials are working to help the family and the firefighters who were at the scene, Groening said.
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“It’s amazing, the calls that I and we have received already,” Groening said.
Anyone wishing to help the affected family can contact the rural municipality office at (204) 746-7300, he said.
“We will co-ordinate.”
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