Two children and their mother were killed, and a third child hospitalized, when a fire tore through a Waco mobile home Thursday evening.

Waco firefighters were called to the home on the 6300 block of North 19th Street about 6:30 p.m. and found the mobile home engulfed in flames, Assistant Waco Fire Chief Don Yeager said.

Witnesses reported through 9-1-1 calls that people were inside the home, and firefighters broke windows and tried to get into the home to save the people as soon as they arrived on the scene. But the fire was too hot, and firefighters were unable to reach the victims, Yeager said.

Firefighters and police work the scene of Thursday night’s fatal fire in the 6300 block of North 19th Street.
Duane A. Laverty / Waco Tribune-Herald

Three firefighters who tried to rescue the victims inside the home suffered second-degree burns and were taken to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, according to the assistant fire chief.

Yeager did not know the mother’s age or identity, but said the children who died were an infant and a 2-year-old.

A 3-year-old boy was pulled to safety through a broken window, Yeager said.

The child was airlifted to the burn unit at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

A neighbor, David McCartney, said his wife called to tell him about the fire and he raced home to find firefighters scrambling to save those inside the burning home.

McCartney, who has three children of his own, was frustrated that all he could do was stand back and watch.

“I never knew how helpless I could feel,” McCartney said.

Denise Miller, another neighbor, said she ran down a hill to the house and described a desperate scene, including the mother’s cries for help from inside the burning home.

Miller said the loss of the children is devastating.

“(The mother) lived for her kids.” she said.

The firefighters who suffered burns and smoke inhalation were determined to save the family, Miller said, and refused treatment until there was no more that could be done.

“You knew they needed to go on to the ambulances for attention, but it was like they didn’t want to leave the scene,” she said.

Yeager didn’t know exactly how long it took to extinguish the fire, but said it didn’t take long, as firefighters doused it with four hoses.

“It all happened so quickly,” he said.

Investigators from the Waco Fire Marshal’s office and Waco Police Department’s special crimes unit were on the scene to inspect the scene after the blaze was put out.

Yeager did not know how long it would take investigators to determine the origin or cause of the fire.

He said firefighters take deaths to heart and feel the pain of loss along with grieving families.

“The circumstances of this fire makes it pretty hard on our rescuers,” Yeager said.

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