BUFFALO, N.Y. — Three children were killed, and four others were hurt in a fire on Dartmouth Avenue on Saturday morning.
Crews responded to the two-alarm fire at 207 Dartmouth Avenue, between Bailey Avenue and Comstock Avenue just before 7:30 a.m. Buffalo Fire Commissioner William Renaldo said the first crews were at the scene in just three minutes. Crews arrived to find heavy smoke and fire conditions in the 1.5-story home.
There were a total of eight people in the home at the time of the fire.
City of Buffalo officials confirmed that three girls — ages 7, 8, and 10 — died in the fire. Firefighters pulled two other children from the home — a boy and a girl, both between the ages of 3 and 10. As of 1:30 p.m. they were listed in critical condition at Oishei Children's Hospital.
An aunt was the first to notice the smoke and flames, according to the commissioner. She escaped unharmed, along with a grandmother and seven-month-old girl.
The little girl is stable at Oishei Children's Hospital. The grandmother, 63, is in critical condition at Erie County Medical Center and is being treated in the burn unit. She also suffered smoke inhalation.
The grandfather lives at the home, but he was not home at the time of the fire.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Firefighters say the fire appears to have started on the first floor in the dining room.
There's $150,000 in damage to the home. There were working smoke detectors in the home.