DETROIT -- Fire department officials say a Christmas morning fire killed a 4-year-old and a 6-year-old at a home on Detroit’s east side and forced their mother to jump from a second-floor window to escape holding her 3-year-old in her arms.
Two other children who survived, an 8-year-old and 10-year-old, were badly burned.
A deputy fire commissioner, David Fornell, called the fire “a Christmas tragedy.”
Fornell said the mother and the 3-year-old were not seriously injured.
Fornell said later Friday that the 8-year-old and 10-year-old appeared to have escaped from the first floor.
Earlier reports cited officials as saying they may also have jumped from the upper floor.
Fornell also confirmed the woman was the mother of all five children.
