PHILADELPHIA (AP) --Five young children were killed in a fast-moving fire that swept through a rowhouse on Sunday morning, and fire officials said security bars in the home's windows slowed the attempted rescue.
Two adults escaped but were seriously injured in the blaze. The man and woman jumped from a second-floor window, and the man landed in a wading pool on the sidewalk, officials said.
Officials would not release the names or ages of the victims, but neighbors said the boy and four girls ranged in age from 6 months to 6 years old. Three were siblings and the other two were their cousins, neighbors said.
The adults who escaped were believed to be the parents of the three siblings who died, police said.
The one-alarm fire broke out around 8 a.m. in a two-story stucco rowhouse in the city's Kensington neighborhood and took just nine minutes to extinguish, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said.
But the attempted rescue of the children was hampered because some of the home's windows were outfitted with security bars, Ayers said.
