6 killed in Oklahoma house fire, including children

WOODWARD, Okla. (AP) — A fire tore through an Oklahoma home early Wednesday, killing six people, including several children, officials said.

One boy managed to escape the blaze after the first firefighter at the scene heard a voice from inside the home and managed to knock an air conditioner from a window with the help of a bystander, said Todd Finley, the fire chief in Woodward, a city of roughly 12,000 people about 125 miles (200 kilometers) northwest of Oklahoma City.

“The last report I have is that that child is going to make it,” Finley said. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to save the six other people that were inside the house.”

Finley declined to say how many children died in the fire, but he said the dead included a mix of kids and adults and that the state medical examiner’s office would work to identify them.

Flames were shooting out the doors and windows of the home when firefighters arrived, and the heat from the blaze started melting firefighters’ masks when they tried to enter, the chief said. He said he didn’t know if the home had working smoke detectors and that the state fire marshal’s office was trying to determine the cause of the blaze.