DOUGLAS COUNTY, Ga. — A child was killed and the rest of its family was taken to the hospital after a fire ripped through their house in Douglas County.
Officials said the fire broke out at the home on the 6100 block of North Sweetwater Road in Lithia Springs around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. The home was destroyed by the blaze.
Rick Martin, with the Douglas County Government, said a mother, father and two kids were injured in the fire.
One of those children, a 6-year-old girl, later died, according to the state commissioner's office. The other's conditions are currently unknown.
Neighbors told Channel 2’s Carl Willis they would see children playing in the yard with their toys and Big Wheels.
Maria Torres told Willis she saw the flames Thursday and her heart sank.
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“A lot of fire. There was fire everywhere in the house,” Torres told Willis. “I was scared. I was praying, ‘Please nobody be inside.’”
But there was – a family of five.
“Coming home and seeing the house totally gone and we knew there was a family there,” neighbor Carmen Pensula said. “It’s just like – it’s gone. And what are these parents going through that lost this child?”
The girl’s mother, father and two siblings were rushed to a nearby hospital.
Hours after the flames were doused, the home continued to smolder, and word of the tragedy that happened there spread throughout the neighborhood.
Pensula told Willis that the incident hit close to home because she had also lost a child in the past.
“Just the thought of losing a child that young, it’s hard. It’s going to be very hard,” Pensula said.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.