GLOVERVILLE, S.C. (WJBF) — A fire has taken the lives of young children, leaving a neighborhood in mourning. What began as a house fire has turned into an unimaginable loss for this tight-knit community.
“I was trying to help get ’em out the window, but once they, their cries faded away, I, we couldn’t find them. The fire was too hot,” neighbor Heather Hall said.
According to the Coroner’s Office, the fire broke out just before 1 a.m. Monday on Pine Street.
A mother and her four children were inside. They were all rushed to the hospital, but 6-year-old Serahya and 8-year-old Deandolyn Jordan didn’t make it. A third sibling is in critical condition, while the mother and another child are expected to recover. “The man that kicked the back door open—the little boy came running out to him. So that’s what saved him and his mom,” she added.
“They would always say, Miss Teresa, I love you, Miss. I’d say, I love you too, baby,” neighbor Theresa Craig recalled.
Theresa Craig, a next-door neighbor, remembers the children fondly. She describes the mother as a single, loving parent now facing an unfathomable loss. “They were great neighbors. They never caused no problems or nothing. Whenever she first moved in, she was pregnant with the youngest twin. And it is just hard to believe…,” she added.
This community watched these children grow up—playing in the yards, laughing, living.
Now, that laughter is gone, replaced with heartbreak. “You’re a child crying for the mama and all of a sudden you just don’t hear nothing. You can’t find them in smoke. That’s something else. I just can’t imagine being her when she gets out. I hate for anybody to go through that, being a mother like that,” Craig added.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.