Death toll from Ky. fire includes six children

BARDSTOWN, Ky. -- A fast-moving blaze killed 10 people early Tuesday -- six of them children -- in Kentucky's deadliest house fire in at least 30 years.

Two people were injured. Neighbors said the pair had to be prevented from running back into the flames in an attempt to rescue the screaming children.

Investigators had not determined the cause of the blaze that broke out shortly before 4 a.m.

"It may have been an explosion in the center of the house. The fire flashed very quickly," fire department spokesman Tom Isaac said.

Neighbor Bennie Stone said he believed some of the people were staying there with relatives because their own furnace went out. The temperature fell to 11 degrees during the night, the National Weather Service said.

It was Kentucky's deadliest fire in any type of building since the Beverly Hills Supper Club blaze in northern Kentucky in 1977 killed 165 people, said Rob Goodwin, senior deputy state fire marshal.

Before Tuesday's fire, Kentucky already had 12 fire deaths so far this year, according to the state fire marshal's office.

Bardstown Fire Chief Anthony Mattingly said the flames spread so rapidly that firefighters couldn't get inside.

"It just didn't make any difference how fast we were here for the victims that were found," he said.

Authorities did not identify the victims, but Janet Tonge said her sister, Sherry Maddox, was among the dead, along with Maddox's boyfriend, Johnny Litsey, two of Maddox's daughters and six of her grandchildren, including twin girls Heaven and Earth Maddox.

"How do you prepare for a funeral this large? How do you do it?" Tonge said. "We're not capable of thinking right now. We're like that house, burned out."

Neighbors said they heard panicked screams from the house.

Lana Meier said a woman who fled the fire banged on her front door. "She was just hysterical. She said `I can't get in the house. It's on fire and my baby's inside,"' Meier said.

Stone, 61, said he went to the rear of the house and saw a woman trying to re-enter the building, but he said he pulled her back outside and away from the house.

Stone said he broke windows to try and get to the children inside, but he was overcome by smoke and flames.

"I heard some of the kids hollering. There was just flames everywhere. There was no way, no way, I just couldn't do it," Stone said.

Most of the victims were dead by the time firefighters reached them, Nelson County Coroner Field Houghlin said.

Another neighbor, Dwight Mason, 48, said one of the survivors was Darrell Maddox, who was listed in serious condition at University of Louisville Hospital. There was no immediate word on the condition of the second survivor.

Another deadly house fire killed four children early Tuesday outside Maryville, Tenn. The parents escaped from the burning home with a 3-year-old, but the other children, ages 7 to 14, died in the blaze, said Blount County, Tenn., Sheriff James Berrong.

"It was just an accident and a tragedy," Berrong said. He said the victims were sleeping in upstairs bedrooms and the survivors were on the first floor.