Fire Marshal Perry Volden said the house had one smoke detector, but its battery was missing. The accidental fire appears to have started in a rice cooker near a stove, investigators said.
Killed in the fire were Jimmy Huynh, 8, and Pearl Wang, 5.
Neighbors said a Vietnamese family of eight _ a woman in her 50s, her two daughters and their children ages kindergarten to high school _ lived in the house.
Two other occupants of the home were hospitalized.
Neighbor Tim Hall was awakened shortly after 4 a.m. Saturday when one of the women beat on his door yelling her kids were in the house.
Hall said he rescued two kids who had crawled out of a second-story bedroom onto a porch roof. Three others were able to escape through the front door.
``The daughter was inside,'' he said. ``I tried going in, but the smoke was too intense.''
Fire rescue crews removed three people while searching the home.
