Monday, a fire broke out as a woman and her seven children, ages 2 to 14, were sleeping in their home in northern France, according to police and firefighters.
The roaring fire, the worst of its kind in France in a decade, began shortly after midnight at a family house in the village of Charly-sur-Marne, around 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Paris.
The woman and her children died of asphyxiation, according to municipal prosecutor Julien Morino-Ros.
The fire looked to have been caused by a defective clothes drier on the bottom floor, he said.
Just before 1:00 am, neighbors called the fire department to report the flames (0000 GMT).
They reported that the woman’s husband, the father of three of her children, was severely burned and sent to a hospital.
A nearby firefighter who helped before to the arrival of his comrades saved his life.
There were five girls and two males among the children. Four of them were from the prior relationship of the mother.
In Sierra Leone, children who have been injured receive free sanitary napkins.
The prosecutor stated that the father appeared to have attempted to extinguish the fire as the children and their mother sought refuge from the flames on the second level, but this proved to be a trap.
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While thick black smoke engulfed the house, firemen had difficulty getting ladders to the upper windows of the house, which was situated on a narrow street in the center of the 2,600-person community.
He stated that the house’s electric window shutters were disabled due to a power loss, further impeding the rescue effort.
Local authorities reported that 80 firefighters were dispatched to the location, and the fire was extinguished after several hours.
The tragedy was the biggest of its kind since 2013, when five youngsters ages two to nine were accidentally asphyxiated in a fire in northern France.
»A mother and her seven children are killed in a fire in France«
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