5 family members, including 2 children, killed in DeKalb County house fire

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The DeKalb County Fire Department is investigating a deadly house fire that killed several people.

It happened on Janet Lane around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Five people, including two children, were killed in the fire. Three others were injured.

“They were saying there’s kids in there. That’s all I heard, and I’m going to hear that the rest of my life,” neighbor Willie Hodges told Channel 2′s Christian Jennings.

The family of the victims identified them as Terryona Regular; her two daughters, Angel and Ailyah; and her two uncles, Pedro and Timothy.

The children were Bernard Ziglor’s cousins.

“Great kids,” is how Ziglor remembered them. “It’s hard. It’s unexpected. Nobody expected this to happen.”

A department spokesman told Jennings that 10 people were inside the house at the time of the fire. Two people were able to escape without injuries.

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Firefighters are still investigating what led up to the fire.

Neighbors say they’ll be a support system for the grieving family, in whatever way they can.

“Anything they need we’ll be there — believe that,” Hodges said.

The department said there have been 29 fires in December and 11 fires since Friday.

Because of these statistics, the fire department started handing out smoke detectors throughout the neighborhood Tuesday.

GoFundMe accounts have been set up for the Regular family and Diane Lay.

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