Dec. 20--WILSON -- Two small children and their mother died early Thursday in a fire in south-central Oklahoma, a state fire official said.
The bodies of a 7-year-old girl, her 4-year-old brother and an adult woman were discovered after a fire was reported about 4:23 a.m. in Wilson, a small Carter County town about 200 miles southwest of Tulsa, said Joanne Sellers, a spokeswoman with the state Fire Marshal's Office.
The names of the victims haven't been released. Benjamin Hickman, who was in the home at the time, escaped the residence unharmed, Sellers said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Three space heaters were in use when the blaze broke out, two in the room where the children were sleeping and one next to the parents' bed in the living room, Sellers said.
Hickman told authorities that the mother awoke screaming, saying the house was on fire. He went outside to try to fetch a garden hose, which couldn't reach the house, Sellers said.
He went to the window in the children's room but couldn't enter because of the intense flames that were fed by high winds, she said.
By the time Wilson Fire Department officials reached the home, about a mile and a half west of Wilson, the structure was destroyed, Sellers said.
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